


Season One

by danaheeroduomax



Series: Mutation Series [1]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, F/M, Language, M/M, Mpreg, Mutation, Sexual Content, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-05
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-07 14:02:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 43,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/749337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danaheeroduomax/pseuds/danaheeroduomax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'm starting this story from the beginning of the series.  It's an Alternate Universe where there are mutations, things like Glenn getting pregnant, or Merle's hand growing back and so on.  Everyone is infected and they have no idea what to expect next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Days Gone Bye

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of a series that I hope everyone likes. It will be in point of view of the multiple characters. This is also my first walking dead fanfiction so please be kind and review. I don't have a beta so any mistakes are all mine. Oh and just so no one get's upset I don't know own the walking dead or it's characters I'm just having fun with them. Please read and enjoy.
> 
> Glenn's POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've updated the first chapter, I still don't have a beta reader, if anyone's interested for the undertaking I would not say no.

 

Days Gone Bye

_Many years ago a pandemic of epic proportions rocked the world; the dead started to come back to life and attack the living.  This is a story of how we survived, came together, the people we lost and the city’s we had seen destroyed.  A tale of our will to live and the choices we were forced to make, as well as the people we met along the way that we’d both cared for and had to leave behind.  You will hear from several of us, so first we must go back several years ago, before I ever arrived at the camp outside of Atlanta, I had been in a coma and when I woke the world was changed forever._

My name is Glenn Rhee, I’m Korean-American, born and raised in Michigan, I moved to Atlanta when my father disowned me after I came out, I’m bi-sexual who prefers men, he said never wanted to see me again my mother agreed with him and my sisters helped me get to Atlanta George to stay with a friend till I got on my feet.  I wanted to go to College but to do that I needed money so I got the first job available, which happened to be as a pizza delivery boy.

When the shit hit the fan I had been in Macon, visiting a friend who had come down with some sort of illness that no one could explain, she didn’t make it and then tried to bite me.  I then made my way home, it was easy once I got a car, and this sweet girl I forgot her name a while back, gave me a walkie-talkie so I could stay in touch with others.  When I arrived I found a group of survives, they needed someone to fetch supplies, I knew all the back roads and short cuts, and I was good at scavenging for things, so I was the best man for the job.  I was sitting near my tent the day before I met Rick, the man who woke from a coma and was presumed dead.  I was looking around the camp.  About two months had passed since the dead started to rise.  The first person of my new life that I looked at was:

The use to be Deputy Shane, the woman that shares his camp Lori, was Rick’s wife, but when I first met them I thought she was Shane’s, she shared camp with him and her young son Carl.  Shane’s a bit of an ass but he seems to mean well, plus he doesn’t give me a hard, time usually.  Lori loves her son and it was clear she missed her husband but I wasn’t blind I’d seen the looks he gave her; I knew something was going on between the two of them.

Next to them was the Peletier family.  The husband and father Ed was abusive to his caring, quite wife Carol, she was so shy I never really got to know her much until later, and the way he looked at his innocent daughter Sophia just wasn’t right.

Then there was Andrea and her younger sister Amy.  Amy was kind and had been looking after the children, Andrea I wasn’t sure about at the time, she seemed protective but I hadn’t really talked with her much.  They’d been holding up in Dale’s RV.  Which brings me to Dale and Jim.

Dale was an older man who had clearly bonded with the sisters on a fatherly level, and he was the most human of us all.  The man Jim stuck to Dale most days, he was a mechanic before the dead started eating his customers and he had to leave in order to survive, he didn’t talk much about any family or friends.

Then there was the Morales family, the husband who seemed to prefer to go by his last name had his wife and their two children all shared one tent, they played with Carl and Sophia, they were kind and Morales was brave.  At the moment Morales was packing some supplies, he knew some things about the city so he was joining our scavenger party; I usually went in a few times a week to grab things, this would be the first time anyone joined me.

Morales was currently talking to.  T-Dog and Jacqui who were the only African Americans, if you wanted to be politically correct, if not, you had the Dixon brothers for that, they were loud mouthed, raciest red-necks, who had their tent separated from the group but managed to ‘cause problems anyways, especially the older of the two.

Jacqui was good at standing up for herself against the brothers; she kept to herself but had decided to go with us to the city.

T-Dog had been able to ignore most of the verbal abuse slurred his way from Merle the older Dixon brother.  Daryl wasn’t as bad, when he wasn’t around Merle, in fact I noticed Daryl pick up his crossbow; I’d never seen him without it as he headed into the woods.

I followed in after him, over the past couple of weeks I’d gotten to know Daryl rather well.  The part of him that he kept hidden from pretty much everyone, especially his brother.  Of course considering who his brother was that was more of a survival instinct.  I looked around after losing Daryl’s trail, which wasn’t a surprise, Daryl’s a good hunter, tracker and I would say lover, but Daryl seemed emotionally cut off.  I didn’t know much about Daryl before the dead started to eat the living, but what I did know was that he loved his brother, even when his brother was abusing him, he still loved him.

I gasped as I was spun around; pushed up against one of the trees and my mouth ravished by Daryl who had his cross bow slung over his back.  “It’s been a long time Chinaman.”  Daryl whispered in my ear.  The nickname had grown on me, it started as a clear cut insult and had turned into a pet name that I was starting to enjoy even though I continued to correct him that I’m Korean.

I soon found myself on the ground with Daryl on top; we were both naked.  At some point during our make out session Daryl had managed to strip us of our clothes, after he’d set his bow at a short distance but within easy reach of us.  Daryl put his fingers in his mouth for the lack of lube that I hadn’t been able to score lately during my scavenging, along with condoms.

Daryl quickly prepared me then entered in a rush.  We didn’t have time to draw this out; we were both horny and in need and I wanted him so bad.  I wrapped my legs around Daryl’s waist as he thrust fast and hard as I tried to stifle my moans of pleasure at the feeling of Daryl’s cock in me.

He wasn’t the first man I’d been with, I dated my boss for a time but I found out real quick that his nice persona was a façade.  More on that later.

I bit the palm of my hand to keep from crying out, the last thing we needed was to draw any walkers to our location, not like we’d seen any out in the woods for the last several weeks we’d been here, all the dead had congregated to the city.  But we’d been trying to keep our relationship a secret, mostly because of Ed and Merle.

At some point I ended up with my hands around Daryl digging my nails into his back.  Daryl had a grip on my waist doing the same; I knew there would be bruises when this was over.  And if Daryl noticed he’d apologize and then kiss them, which was like one of the only times he ever let his guard down.

We both climaxed at that point, I came first, and then Daryl followed quickly after into pure oblivion.  I had made my lip bleed a little trying not to scream out; Daryl’s good at biting off his noises, I wasn’t, I wondered if that was from his past or just who he was.

Then I slipped up in the afterglow of my orgasm, I said something that I wasn’t sure if Daryl was ready to hear or not, but it was completely true, I never took it back and I meant every word.  At that time, I had been falling hard for Daryl and I just couldn’t stop myself.

 “I love you.”  I regretted it the moment it left my mouth, the look on Daryl’s face as he pulled away from me.  I didn’t want to take it back, it was true, and I would never take back anything I said to Daryl that was from the heart.

But Daryl stood up and started to dress.  Daryl wasn’t good with words, that had been very clear from the beginning.  So he stumbled a little on what to say, he finally gave up once he finished dressing.  He grabbed his crossbow and headed into the woods to hunt, it’s what he did, he’d been getting us most of the meat we’d had the pleasure of eating.  Merle hunted too sometimes I guess, I wouldn’t really know I tried to avoid him as much as possible, besides Merle was never big on sharing.

Once I could no longer see Daryl I got up, cleaned myself off and dressed, I had to get back to camp ‘cause we needed to leave soon for the city.  I was use to going to the city by myself before I found this camp, I’m good at scavenging, but now that I was there they wanted to go with me.  It was a bad idea but I had been out voted.

Shortly after I got to camp it was time to leave and head to Atlanta, I told Shane and Dale we’d probably be back in a few days.  I told them I’d keep in touch with the walkie and then left on foot, cars made too much noise and we needed to be as quite as possible at the moment.

We made it to a department store by nightfall and slept there, with a person on watch just in case, luckily by morning the geeks hadn’t noticed us…yet.  They were milling about the streets, so there was the ever constant danger of being found.

We started to look for things that would be useful or needed, while T-dog and Merle had gone to the roof, the rest of us gathered what we could.  Merle had found a nice spot to keep a look out, with his riffle.  After an hour Andrea and I got up on the roof while Morales continued to look for things his family needed. We wanted a look at our surroundings.  I knew my way around the buildings so if we needed a quick escape I was the guy to follow.

It was a couple of hours later when we heard something, it sounded like hooves, I looked and sure enough there was a guy riding a horse, like from a western galloping into town.  I saw this ending badly.  I ran to a different building to try and get his attention, the guy was riding right into a herd of walkers and didn’t even know it.

I stopped several buildings over that was near an ally way, and then I saw the horse go down, watched the guy loose what had looked like a bag on his back.  I couldn’t be sure from here but there was stuff sticking out of it, I just couldn’t make out what they were.  I watched as the man crawled under a tank that had been left when the army had tried to take back the city and failed.  The geeks followed him, I was sure the guy was a goner.

But as I watched I saw the guy pop out of the top of the tank, then he went back in closing the hatch that had been surrounded by the undead.  I took out my walkie and switched channels until I found the military broad band; I was hoping to get him on the radio in the tank.

“Hey you, dumbass.  Yeah, you in the tank, are you cozy in there?”


	2. Guts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter, second episode, as the chapters and mutations start making a bigger appearance then things start to change from the show but for now it's staying pretty close to it.
> 
> I do not own the characters or the original ideas, this chapter is also unbated I do not have a bate reader, though I really wish I did.

Guts

Daryl's POV

 

I sat on a log, after losing this deer I’ve been trying to heard closer to camp.  No way am I dragging that thing miles through these woods without help.  So if I can get it closer then it won’t be a problem and we could all have venison for once.

He loves me; I couldn’t stop thinking of what Glenn had said.  It must’ve been a mistake, all my life I’d been told I was unlovable.  So the fact that this, _one kid_ , that I’ve pretty much treated like shit, unless we were alone that is, loved me seemed impossible.  It had to be a trick.  The more I thought about it the madder I got; it’s these thoughts that made me loose the deer in the first place.

So, I was blaming Glenn for losing the deer, and my bad mood and then I convinced myself that he didn’t really love me, he was just trying to make me drop my guard, he was trying to trick me.  Which wasn’t going to happen, Merle and I are going through with the plan once he gets back.  We’re going to take what we need and leave; I don’t need anyone else but Merle.

With that decided I got up from the log, steadied my cross bow and headed off to find that deer, then get it back to camp.

* * *

 

Glenn's POV

 

“Hey, you alive in there?”  I asked, after a few minutes from my last try, I waited for a response hoping I had the right frequency.  I was relieved to hear his voice on the other end when he finally picked up.

“Hello?  Hello?”  He sounded breathy and panicked which is understandable considering what just happened.  I was still watching the tank from my perch on the roof.

“There you are, you had me wondering.”  For a second before he’d answered I thought maybe I’d been wrong, he had been bit and was dead or something.

“Where are you, outside, can you see me right now?”  The questions rattled off, I felt sorry for the guy, he was alone in a tank surrounded by walkers, and it was obvious he was clutching to my voice like a life line.  Which is how I’d probably feel if I’d been in his situation.

“Yeah, I can see you.”  I wanted him to know that he wasn’t alone; I was going to help him out of that tank and somewhere safer then where he was at that moment.  “You’re surrounded by walkers, that’s the bad news.”

“There’s good news?”  He asked me, I had wanted to give him hope but I couldn’t lie to the guy, he needed to trust me if I was going to save his life.

“No.”  I hated saying that, I was technically telling him that he was screwed six ways from Sunday.

“Listen, whoever you are, I don’t mind telling you I’m a little concerned in here.”  He didn’t have to tell me I could hear it in his voice.  But it wasn’t any better on my side of things, watching hundreds of walkers go after that horse, it was a feeding frenzy and frankly that did not help the nausea that’s been building since this morning.

“Oh man, you should see it from over here; you’d be having a major freak-out.”  Like I’m trying _not_ to have.  I left that part out.

“Got any advice for me?”  Most advice these days is don’t die, but I guess that’s a moot point.  So I told him the only thing that came to mind.

“Yeah, I’d say make a run for it.”  He had fifty-fifty odds here, so he might make it.  With them going at the horse like they were it would give him a leg up.

“That’s it?  ‘Make a run for it’?”  I could hear the skepticism in his voice.  I got a little closer to the edge of the roof; I was in front of the fire escape to the ally.

“My way’s not as dumb as it sounds, you’ve got eyes on the outside here.  There’s one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down, and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down.  With me so far?”  I quickly rattled off what I could see so he could make his escape.

“So far.”  The doubt has left his voice so it sounds like he’s listening.

“Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded.  If you move now while they’re distracted, you’d stand a chance.”  I informed him, I’d hate to see this guy end up as walker food so I hopped he was fast.  “Got ammo?”  I asked as an afterthought.  Seeing as that would help in his escape.

“In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns.  Can I get to it?”  So that’s what was sticking out of the bag I saw.  Man that really sucks.  It was surrounded by walkers.

“Forget the bag, okay?  It’s not an option, what do you have on you?”

“Hang on.”  Yeah, easier for me then you pal.  I thought to myself, once those walkers are finished with that horse he’ll never get away, he’d better hurry.  I was slightly anxious which didn’t help my stomach any as the need to throw up grew.  I must have a bug or something, the last time I was sick from the walkers was when I first got attacked.  I was in shock and threw up after throwing the guy onto a picketed fence and he still tried to eat him.  I ran after that, just leaving him there, I’ve been fine ever since.  Until now that is, his voice was back, bringing me out of my reverie.

“I’ve got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds.”  What could I say to that?

“Make ‘em count.”  I hoped that the walkers would be too distracted with the horse to pay attention to any other sounds.  “Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction.  There’s an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards, be there.”

“Hey, what’s your name?”  He wants my name; he needs to start running now.

“Have you been listening?  You’re running out of time.”  Maybe the shock of what’s happened is getting to him and he’s not able to pay attention, that the situation is bad.

“Right.”  Good I hope he’s moving.  I store the walkie in the tan pack on my back then I head down the fire escape to meet up with him, and then we’ll head back to the store where the rest are waiting.

As I rush to meet him I hear gun shots being fired, that has to be a good sign.  At least the guys alive and moving.  I get to the fence and open it he aims his gun at me I start backing up as I shout out. “Whoa! Not Dead!  Come on, come on.”  With my hands and body in a follow me jester as I head back the way I’d come, the guy who looks a little worse for wear right behind me.

“Back here!”  I am scared out of my mind as I keep moving, a part of me just wants to run all out and not stop until I feel safe but I know I must stay calm and get this guy to the others so we can all get out of here.  I keep waving and repeating him to follow me.  I get to the escape ladder I’d used and head up.  I’ll have to remember to get this guy’s name if we live through this.

One thought keeps going through my head as the adrenaline pushes me onward, is that I hope to live to see Daryl again, even though I know he may not want to see me or have anything to do with me after what happened but I just want to see him and let him know that I do love and care for him.

I heard him shoot again I look down real quick and ask/scream at him. “What are you doing?! Come on!”  I can’t believe he paused to shoot some more, at this point he might get the idea that that’s just wasting bullets and precious time he doesn’t have.

I get to the cat walk and turn to give him a hand, I take in his clothes and realize that at some point before all this he’d been a cop, a sheriff deputy by what’s on the badge, or he stole a guy’s clothes but I don’t think so with the way he’s wearing that badge.

Once up we take a breather I lean against the rail looking down thanking God once again that Geeks are too stupid to climb, trying to get out breath back, though I’m not as out of breath as I’d expect.  As the adrenalin starts to come down I realize just how sick to my stomach I feel, it’s even worse now that I’m closer to the smell, it takes a few seconds of swallowing to get it under control.

Then I look at him, I can’t help myself.  “Nice moves there Clint Eastwood, you the new sheriff come riding into clean up the town?”  Ask anyone I’m a smart ass; I swear that’s how it looked.

“It wasn’t my intention.”  He tells me, I’m sure it wasn’t, it was just a real stupid move.

“Yeah, whatever.  Yeehaw, you’re still a dumbass.”  I reaffirm my pack on my back for a moment.

“Rick, thanks.”  That’s introduction, so the guy’s name is Rick and he’s thanking me, that, was unexpected, he holds his hand out there waiting.

Might as well, “Glenn, you’re welcome.”  I shake his hand, then he puts his gun in my pack before going to the ladder, looks like their trying to figure out the whole climbing thing.

“Oh no.”  I see one starting to climb up.  It’s time to go, I grab onto the ladder and look up, it’s a long way up, I turn to Rick.  “The Brightside, it’ll be the fall that kills us; I’m a glass half full kind of guy.”  I start heading up, Rick right behind me.

We go through a door once on the roof and across a small section put there to connect the buildings and up onto another roof.  As he asks “Are you the one that barricaded the alley?”

“Somebody did—I guess when the city got overrun.”  Yeah that barricade was here when I arrived, I’ve wondered about it myself.  “Whoever did it was thinking not many Geeks would get through.”  I run across the building to a hatch so we can go down without the fear of getting eaten.

“Back at the tank, why’d you stick your neck out for me?”  Good question, I only had one answer for that.

“Call it foolish naïve hope, that if I’m ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me.”  Yep defiantly naïve, how many guys would be dumb enough to stick through necks out there for a complete stranger.  Rick got lucky, I’m that dumb, and I tell him so.  “Guess I’m an even bigger dumbass than you.”

We head down, Rick shutting the hatch.  I get on the ground and readjust my pack on my right shoulder after it started to slip off.  Then head through the building, looks like an office type of some sort.  I open the door and headed down the stairs that had been a fire escape.

I bring out my walkie and start talking to the guys waiting for me to return.  “I’m back, got a guest plus four Geeks in the alley.”  We get down the stairs and there are the Geeks I mentioned, right in the way of where the door to where the others are.  I stop short upon seeing them head our way.

We slowly back up, when the door opens and two of my friends come out wielding bats.  And protective gear over the legs, arms, chests, and faces.  I couldn’t tell who it was, but it didn’t really matter as long as the Geeks get taken out and we get inside.

As they pummeled the Geeks I shout to Rick, “Let’s go!”  As we ran past them into the building that was our safe haven at that time.

Heard one sounded like T-Dog say “Morales let’s go!”  Then followed us in closing the door behind them.

Andrea and Jacqui were waiting inside; once the door was closed Andrea pushed Rick against one of the shelves her gun pointed in his face.  “You son of a bitch we ought to kill you.”  Andrea threated, she was pissed and probably scared just hiding it through her anger.  That’s okay I’m scared myself but killing the guy we just saved won’t solve the problem.

Jacqui was leaning against more shelves as this room seemed to be where they stored stuff they were going to sell, Morales was taking off the protective gear, as T-dog secured the door, I dropped my pack once the door was locked.

“Just chill out, Andrea, back off.”  Morales said, trying to defuse the tense situation.

Jacqui was now next to her as well.  “Come on, ease up.”  Jacqui’s like that, she’s nice and kind and tries to help everyone.

Andrea looked at her like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  “Ease up?  You’re kidding me, right?  We’re dead because of this stupid asshole.”

Morales got right next to her, he must have noticed that at any moment she was liable to pull the trigger.  “Andrea, I said back the hell off.”

Rick surprisingly enough was calmer than most in his current position.  I knew I’d be freaking out, though maybe he just had a good poker face.  Morales finally said what she probably wanted to hear as we waited and she had yet to move.  “Well, pull the trigger.”

She finally dropped her arm and said what she’d been feeling; “We’re dead, all of us, because of you.”

Rick looked at us, as he was calming down from the adrenaline rush, we all were trying to get our bodies under control.  “I don’t understand.”  He told us.

Morales stepped up and grabbed Rick’s arm heading out of the storage room.  “Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies.”  Morales started to explain on the way.  “You know what the key to scavenging is? _Surviving_.”  Morales pushed Rick in front as the rest of us followed him, I brought up the rear after Jacqui.  Morales continued with his lecture to Rick.  “You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing.  Not shooting up the streets like it’s the O.K. Corral.”  Morales had a good point there.

We got to the front room where the windows were and it was easier to see outside, that was part of the problem with our fear at the moment, we could see them, as Rick looked out Morales said the part that was crucial to this whole situation.  “Every Geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds.”

Andrea spoke and it sank in for Rick.  “You just rang the dinner bell.”  You could hear the Geeks, smell the decomposed flesh and it made my skin crawl, not to mention the nausea I’d felt earlier was coming back with a vengeance.

“Get the picture now?”  Morales finished up, as realization dawned in Rick’s eyes.  The dead were trying to get in, breaking at the first set of glass doors that protected us from them with a rock and their fists and unlike them, we get tired, we have to sleep, _they_ don’t.

We started to back up as T-dog spoke the unspoken for us all.  “Oh God.”  The glass is breaking and the fear from earlier was coming back as well, I realized I needed a bucket but swallowed compulsively which helped a little.

Andrea asked what I myself had been thinking.  “What the hell were you doing out there anyway?”

“Trying to flag the helicopter.”  Was Rick’s answer.  I thought the man was nuts, later on I’d find out he wasn’t, at that point there wasn’t anyone, but there were men in helicopters looking for survivors, but that’s later in our story.

“Helicopter?  Man, that’s crap, ain’t no damn helicopter.”  T-Dog said in disbelief.

“You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things, it happens.”  Jacqui told him calmly.

“I saw it.”  He said, believing that what he’d seen had been real.

T-Dog must’ve found a C.B radio while I’d been out as Morales said.  “Hey, T-Dog try that C.B, can you contact the others?”

Rick picked up on that.  “Others?  The refugee center?”  He asked.  I hated that all we were giving this guy was bad news.

“Yeah, the refugee center.  They’ve got biscuits waiting at the oven for us.”  Jacqui said sarcastically, it appears her patients with Rick were starting to run thin.  Did this guy know anything, all his actions tell of either naivety at the situation or stupidity.

“Got no signal, maybe the roof.”  T-Dog said, speaking about the C.B, it appeared that the radio can be rather finicky at times

Then a gun shot went off, that could only mean trouble, more importantly the sound came from above us, and there was only one other person that had tagged along and wasn’t with us at the moment.  Andrea said what we were all thinking.  “Oh no, is that Dixon?”

“What is that maniac doing?”  I asked, I can’t stand that guy, even though I am completely in love with his brother.

“Come on, let’s go.”  I heard someone say, a bunch of voices were speaking so I couldn’t pin point it, at the time it didn’t really matter as we all headed up to the roof.

Two more shots went off before we made it to the roof, we’d rushed up the stairs Morales getting there first with a shout at the man.  “Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!”  Merle just laughed.  Which might have answered Morales’ question.  He kept shooting, I knew bringing him along was a bad idea.

He finally turned with the gun, a riffle in his hand.  “Hey! Y’all be more polite to a man with a gun!”  He sounded just like any other loud mouthed red neck that treated me like shit; I should know my parents lived next to one for years

He got off the ledge of the building as he came towards us.  All I wanted was for everyone to calm down, Dixon to put down the gun and to throw up, which now I was finding difficult to do, I was nauseous yes, but I didn’t feel the need to go vomit.  I just wished I did.

“Huh?”  Dixon asked as he’d been waiting for a response.  “Only common sense.”

T-Dog made a mistake as he went over to him yelling at the man which never helps.  “Man, you wasting bullets we ain’t even got!”  Dixon just laughs, I hate his laugh.  T-Dog continued.  “And your bringing even more of them down on our ass!  Man, just chill.”

That started Merle’s raciest remarks.  “Bad enough I’ve got this taco-bender on my ass all day.  Now I’m gonna take orders from you?”  It was more of a rhetorical question.  He answered it for us anyways.  “I don’t think so, bro.  That’ll be the day.”

T-Dog should’ve let it go, but he had to fuel the flames some more.  “‘That’ll be the day’?  You got something you want to tell me?”  He asked after quoting Merle.

Morales tried to stop it, “Hey, T-Dog man just leave it.”  He must’ve seen where this was headed too, nowhere good that’s for sure.

“No.”  T-Dog told Morales.

“It ain’t worth it.”  He told T-Dog, and Morales’ was right, Merle isn’t worth it.  “Now Merle, just relax okay?”  He continued.

I of course had to say something as well hoping it’d calm things down. “We’ve got enough trouble.”  Trying to remind them that the fights with the dead not with each other.

“You want to know the day?”  Merle asked.

“Yeah.”  T-Dog answered, I wish T-Dog had just left it alone.

“I’ll tell you the day, Mr. ‘Yo’.”  Merle said mocking T-Dog.  “It’s the day I take orders from a nigger.”  Of course that pissed T-Dog off and he threw a right hook at Merle who easily countered it with the butt of the riffle he’d still been holding.  Then Rick headed over telling them to knock it off as the girls were telling them to stop as well.

Merle hit Rick, knocking him down, then turned and kicked T-Dog in the stomach.  I couldn’t take it anymore, I turned then got on my knees and vomited, the fighting continued on behind me.  I turned back just as Merle put a handgun in T-Dog’s face who was now on the ground with Merle straddling him.  Fear shot through me, as I stood, was he really going to do it, shoot T-Dog.

Andrea was begging him not to do it, T-Dog was whimpering in pain, I was feeling sick again and Merle just looked at us, as if daring us to say or do something.

Merle spat on him, and then slowly started to stand up as he said.  “We’re gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh?  Talk about who’s in charge.”  T-Dog started to roll over, Andrea, Jacqui and I grabbed him to help him up as Merle kept talking.  “I vote me, anybody else?  Huh? Democracy time, y’all.”  He just stood there with the gun waiting for anyone to go against him, give him a reason to pull that trigger.

He started to ask for votes, a show of hands who was in favor of him in charge, of course his hand went up, Morales shortly followed, I don’t blame him, mine went up, then Jacqui’s, Andreas.  T-Dog was still on the ground supported by Jacqui as he held his side.  “Yeah that’s good.  Now that means I’m the boss, right?  Anybody else?” 

During all this no one myself included seemed to have noticed Rick as he spoke up.  “Yeah.”  He hit Merle in the mouth with the same gun that Merle had hit T-Dog with.  Then he took out his cuffs after Merle had gone down and put it on his right wrist, then a small piece of pipe on the roof.

He pulled Merle up till his back was again the tube that had been on the roof and had the pipe connected to it.  “Who the hell are you, man?!”  Merle asked hastily.

“Officer friendly.”  He turned and grabbed the gun that had fallen from Merle’s hand when he’d been hit.  He took out the bullet in the chamber as he spoke.  “Look here Merle, things are different now.  There are no _Niggers_ anymore, no dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either.  Only dark meant and white meat, there’s us and the dead.  We survive this by pulling together, not apart.”

Merle turned to him.  “Screw you, man.”   Merles one of those that won’t change his ways no matter how different the times become.

“I can see you make a habit of missing the point.”

“Yeah?  Well, screw you twice.”

“Ought to be polite to a man with a gun.”  Rick threw Merle’s words back at him as he cocked the gun and put it to Merle’s temple.  “Only common sense.”

The rest of us were waiting for it to end, Jacqui was using T-Dog’s bandana to stop the bleeding from his lip.

“You wouldn’t, you’re a cop.”  Merle said, not believing that Rick would pull the trigger.

“All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son.”  Rick is capable of doing it, just like any of us are if it comes down to it to protect ourselves and loved ones.  “Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose, I’ll give you a moment to think about that.”  He pats Merle down and pulls out a small vile with some white powder in it, might be cocaine.  “Got some one your nose there.”  Rick tells him as he flicks his nose, then stands up.

“What are you gonna do?  Arrest me.”  Merle says as he laughs.  “Hey! What are you doing?  Man that was my stuff!”  Merle yelled as Rick threw it over the roof to the Walkers below, the rest of us just watched, Andrea was still taking care of T-Dog.  In those moments I din’t once regret risking my life to save Rick’s, it’s paid off.

As Rick walked away Merle started to threaten what he’d do to Rick if he gets free of the cuffs keeping him prisoner on the roof, he just kept tossing out insults and other things I’ve chosen to forget.

Rick had walked to the edge of the roof, Morales went to talk to him, I was too far away to hear what they were saying.  But I did hear thunder rumbling, it would be raining soon.

Jacqui and Andrea were at one of the other ledges as I sat on some metal stairs that attach to the walkway over the pipes that Merle is currently cuffed to, it helped with the nausea to be off my feet.  “God it’s like times square down there.”  Andrea commented as she looked at the Geeks down below.

Rick and Morales walked back, I was trying to get my walkie to work, T-Dog is sitting against the ledge next to where Jacqui’s standing and working on his walkie, I can hear static coming from it.  “How’s that signal?”  Morales asked as he walked up to them.

“Like Dixon’s brain, weak.”  T-Dog answered.

“Keep Trying.”  Morales told him.

“Why there’s nothing they can do, not a damn thing.”  Andrea said.

Morales looked at Rick and explained.  “Got some people outside the city is all, there’s no refugee center that’s a pipe dream.”

“Then she’s right we’re on our own.”  Rick said.  “It’s up to use to find a way out.”

“Good luck with that, these streets ain’t safe in this part of town from what I hear.”  Merle put his two cents in.  “Ain’t that right sugar tits?”  He asked Andrea, who had moved from the ledge to a red pack lying on the roof closer to Merle.  I hated the way Merle talked to or treated Andrea.  “Hey, honeybunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies?”  Andrea while trying to ignore him was cleaning her hands with a small handkerchief and then put it back in the bag.  “Gonna die anyway.”

Andrea finally spoke.  “I’d rather.”  She got up and started to walk away.

“Rug muncher I figured as much.”  Merle disgusts me as I looked down at my walkie in my hands and just sat there.

“The streets ain’t safe.”  Rick said.

Morales was still next to him.  “Now there’s an understatement.”  He said.

“What about under the streets?   The sewers?”

“Oh man.”  Morales turned around then and spoke to me.  “Hey Glenn check the alley.  You see any manhole covers?”  He asked as I stood up and looked over the edge to see, I saw a couple of walkers no manholes.

“No, must be all out in the streets where the Geeks are.”  I told ‘em.

“Maybe not, old building like this built in the ’20s, big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements.”  Jacqui explained.

“How do you know that?”  I asked.

“It’s my job—was.  I worked in the city zoning office.”

So we all headed down to the basement, everyone following me, we’d gotten flashlights so we could see better in the darkness of the basement, except Merle or T-Dog, he was still hurting and decided to keep an eye on Merle.

We found a place that goes right down into the sewers.  “This is it?  Are you sure?”  Rick asked me.

“I really scoped this place out the other times I was here, it’s the only thing in the building that goes down.”  I explained.  “But I’ve never gone down it, who’d want to right?”  They looked at me, so maybe I was a little bit of a coward, the things I’ve seen it’s reasonable.  It was clear from the looks on their faces that it was time to head on down.  “Oh, great.”

“We’ll be right behind you.”  Andrea told me.

“No you won’t, not you.”  I informed her.

“Why not me?  Think I can’t?”  This wasn’t about her.

“I wasn’t-“  I paused.

Rick was next to me he put a reassuring hand on my arm and said.  “Speak your mind.”

“Look, until now I always came here by myself, in and out grab a few things no problem.  The _First_ time I bring a group everything goes to hell.  No offense.”  I didn’t say it to upset them but they needed to know how it was.  I continued.  “If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine, but only if we do it my way.  It’s tight down there, if I run into something and have to get out quick.  I don’t want you all jammed up behind me getting me killed.  I’ll take one person.”  Rick started to move, I stopped him.  “Not you either.  You’ve got Merle’s gun and I’ve seen you shoot.  I’d feel better if you were out in that store watching those doors covering our ass.”

I pointed to Andrea then.  “And you’ve got the only other gun so you should go with him.”  Pointing to Morales I said.  “You be my wingman, Jacqui stays here.  Something happens yell down to us get us back up here in a hurry.”

Jacqui nodded with a quick. “Okay.”

“Okay, everybody knows their jobs.”  Rick said after I told them what to do.

I put the end of the small black flashlight I’d been holding between my teeth, grabbed the top to the ladder after turning around and headed into the great dark unknown.  My heart was hammering and for a second I felt dizzy and light headed as I slowly made my way stopping as my feet landed on the ground.  I moved away then waited for Morales.

I looked down the tunnel flashlight back in hand, taking a deep calming breath, I looked back up and saw Andrea and Rick go off to do their parts.  Morales turned to me and waited for me to take the lead and head into the tunnel.  I could hear rats squeaking and as I walked water was splashing, the last thing I want is to run into a Geek down in these tunnels.  But with no other choice we went on ahead to find us an exit.

I must have stepped on a rat’s tail ‘cause it screeched and I jumped slightly, I hate that, I hate rats and I hate walking into the dark.  I kept moving forward.  My nausea coming back full force, we kept moving.

After about ten maybe fifteen minutes walking we found a grate.  “Yeah, we’ve got ourselves a sewer tunnel.”  Morales said.  The problem would be that iron grate baring our access to the sewer.  “Jacqui was right.”  Morales continued as we walked up closer to get a better look.

“Can we cut through it?”  I asked.

“If we had a blowtorch and half a day, sure.  Dale’s hacksaw sure as hell won’t do it.”  We shined our flashlights at the top and it was cemented into the walls.  A noise caught are attention and we looked down and saw a Geek eating a Rat, I freaked as it reached through the bars, we backed away and started heading back, a few minutes everything caught up to me and my stomach revolted.  I told him to wait as I went to one of the walls and threw up.  Morales laid a hand on my back. “You did the same thing on the roof, are you okay Glenn?”  he asked.

I just nodded as I spit a few times, then stood up.  “It’s probably just a bug, I’ll be fine.”  I told him, then we headed back to the rest, let them know that this is not our way out.  I thought sarcastically how they’d just love to hear that.

As we reached the ladder and climbed to the top we heard glass shatter upstairs.  Jacqui, Morales and I all ran to the store front.  We saw they’d broken through the first glass between us and them, then started working on banging on the only glass protecting us from them.

Rick turned slightly to Morales, while still keeping his eyes on the walkers.  “What did you find down there?”  He asked.

“Not a way out.”  Morales answered.

“We need to find a way.”  Andrea said, speaking what was on all our minds I’m sure.  “And soon.”

We went back up to the roof, after Rick grabbed a pair of binoculars he saw on display.  I kept the walkie in hand, I’m not sure why I just felt safer with it then without.  We watched the walkers below on the streets and Rick used the binoculars to find us a way out.  He must’ve seen something as he moved it away from his eyes then spoke.  “That construction site, those trucks they always keep keys on hand.”  Rick said as he passed the binoculars to Morales.  Morales double checked the site that was a good ways down the road from our current location.

“You’ll never make it past the walkers.”  Morales told him.  I hoped he was wrong it was our last chance.

Rick looked to me then.  “You got me out of that tank.”

“Yeah, but they were feeding, they were distracted.” I told him.

“Can we distract them again?”  Rick asked.  Jacqui and Morales were leaning against the edge and Rick was looking at me, Andrea standing next to him, Merle was still cuffed behind me and T-Dog was still sitting watching us discuss this.

Merle spoke up.  “Right, listen to him he’s onto something.”  He pointed to me as I looked at him.  “A diversion like on ‘Hogan’s Heroes.’”

“God, give it a rest.”  Jacqui said looking disgustedly at Merle.

Rick got us back on topic.  “They’re drawn by sound, right?”

“Right, like dogs they hear a sound, they come.”  I answered his question.

“What else?”  Rick asked.

Morales answered this time.  “Aside from they hear you?  They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you.”

Something in that caught Rick’s attention.  “They can tell us by smell?”

“Can’t you?”  I asked

“They smell dead we don’t it’s pretty distinct.”  Andrea informed him.

“Then let’s smell dead.”  Rick said then headed downstairs, Jacqui, Morales, Andrea, T-Dog and I followed.  Rick started to grab things he saw that would cover our skin, rubber gloves, tan coats. 

Rick told us his plan on the way down and as he grabbed the stuff I had to say something, voice my emotions on this one.  “If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold.”

“He’s right.”  Morales agreed.  He walked over to Rick as he continued to gather things.  “Just stop, okay?  Take sometime to think this through.” Morales tried to get Rick to calm down and think.

Rick turned to us as he said.  “How much time?  They already got through one set of doors that glass won’t hold forever.”  Rick reminded us as he threw a coat at me.

We got back to the door that had gotten Rick and me into the building just a few hours ago.  Rick and Morales once wearing the gloves and coats ran out to grab one of the bashed up walkers from earlier, while Andrea and I who was also wearing gloves and a coat watched their backs.  I wasn’t sure if my stomach would be able to handle this.

Once they passed us and Andrea was inside with them I closed the door securing it.  Rick sighed as he put the visor down on his protective hat to keep his face safe from any blood spatter.  Now after breaking the case with an axe in it he was ready to go to work on this very dead walker.  I felt sick from the stench and we hadn’t even done anything with it yet.

We were all now wearing gloves and coats to help protect our bodies.  Rick raised the axe, but stopped before swinging down, he put the axe and protective hat on the ground.  He kneeled down next to the guy and started riffling his pockets.  I was confused at what he was doing.  He pulled out the man’s wallet and it started to click, he wanted to know who we were about to gut.

“Wayne Dunlap.”  Rick read the license.  “Georgia license, born in 1979.”  He took it out and handed it to me; I looked at it feeling a sort of sadness.  Rick continued.  “He had $28 in his pocket when he died, and a picture of a pretty girl.”  He flipped the picture and read what was on the back.  “With love from Rachel.”  Rick then looked at us.  “He used to be like us, worrying about bills, or the rent, or the super bowl.  If I ever find my family I’m gonna tell them about Wayne.”  He put the guy’s wallet back in his pants and then grabbed the helmet putting it back on.

I spoke up then.  “One more thing, he was an organ donor.”  I’d seen it on his license.  It must’ve helped as Rick picked up the axe, raised it then brought it down on Wayne.  Andrea couldn’t look as she turned way.  Morales prayed, while I tried to keep whatever was left in my stomach in there.  But the smell had gone up from bad to almost unbearable.  Rick continued to hack his legs, arms, and torso till he was open and cuts hanging out.  I wanted to look away but was compelled to watch.

Rick stopped and passed the axe and visor to Morales telling him to keep chopping.  I couldn’t stop from groaning, I felt so sick.  I even spoke at this point.  “I am so gonna hurl.”  Rick told me later, I knew he was right, now wasn’t the time.

After a few more chops from Morales Rick asked.  “Everybody got gloves?  Don’t get any on your skin or in your eyes.”  He told us.  We realized it was time to dig into the guy.  So with grim determination we started.  Rick started to cover himself with the guy’s insides, I followed suit knowing I was the best for his back up.

I hated it, as intestines were being put on me.  “Oh, jeeze.  Oh, this is bad.”  I moaned.

Rick tried to help.  “Think about something else, puppies and kittens.”

What T-Dog said next broke my will to not let my stomach go.  “Dead puppies and kittens.”  That was it; I bent over away from the body and vomited the worse yet.

I heard Andrea speak to T-Dog.  “That is just evil, what is wrong with you?”

Jacqui spoke to, I think it was to Rick I was too busy with my head down throwing up to really see, but my ears still worked.  “Next time let the cracker beat his ass.”

I had finished and was starting to get up when T-Dog said.  “I’m sorry, yo.”

I told him what I thought of him in the moment of throwing up.  “You _suck_.”  Andrea was finishing me up with the guts.

Rick asked.  “Do we smell like them?”

Andrea answered with a look on her face that was a clear yes before she spoke.  “Oh yeah.  Glenn.”  I looked at her as she handed me her gun.  “Just in case.”  She moved part of the coat and put the gun in my pants.

“If we make it back be ready.”  Rick told them.  I hated that word, if.  It’s been slowly becoming my new most hated word in the English language.

“What about Merle Dixon?”  T-Dog asked.

Rick took off his left glove, reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to the cuffs.  I knew we couldn’t leave him, I’m having enough trouble with Daryl with him around, and I’d hate to see what Daryl would do or say if we left his brother behind, dick or not he doesn’t deserve to die like that.  Rick tossed T-Dog the key; clearly it was now T-Dog’s responsibility.

“Give me the axe.”  He put the glove back on; then took the axe from Morales.  “We need…We need more guts.”  We all groaned as he started chopping again.

I sometimes wish I could forget what went down that day, just block out the sights and smells and sounds but I can’t, and looking back now I realize that I really don’t want to.  If I’d known then what would be changing my life several months down the road I’d probably taken a different course of action.  Anyways.

So after we were finished covering our bodies in walker guts it was time to leave the building and go out there putting this plan into action.  Walking out the door, with feet, hands and ribs hanging from our necks, covered in dead blood we reeked and luckily my stomach had calmed down somewhat for the first time that day.

We started our slow trek to the construction site, I heard Morales close the door shortly after we headed down.  The thing that kept repeating in my head as we walked was to not get eaten, to make it through this in one piece and for my heart to stop pounding in my chest.

Rick had taken the axe and I’d grabbed a crow bar just in case they realized we weren’t one of them.  But we soon found that it was working.  We couldn’t go fast that would tip them off for sure.

We slowly walked to the end of the ally where a bus was parked.  Rick and I got down on our hands and knees, then further on our bellies and crawled to the other side.  I wasn’t sure if it was the adrenalin or I just worked the bug out of my system but the nausea was gone by then.  Getting up I looked and saw the words Metro Local on the side of the bus, I think it was a tour bus we’d just crawled under.

Focus, I told myself as we started again to the construction site and the walkers around us, just kept going not paying any mind to us.  The thunder from earlier was getting louder, I had a bad feeling about that.

We just continued to walk; I tried to keep my mind blank, to not think about me possibly getting eaten.  My mind started to wonder back to Daryl and yesterday’s activities.  Again I wished I’d kept my big mouth shut, I just wanted to see him again, tell him that I’m sorry and that I can’t take back what I feel for him.

About half way to the site I spoke with my teeth clinched.  “It’s gonna work I can’t believe it.”

“Don’t draw attention.”  Rick told him.  Yeah, like I’m a complete idiot.

I growled after one of the walkers got to close it drew it away from me.  The thunder was getting closer and becoming a continues rolling sound.  Then what I’d been praying wouldn’t happen, happened.  It started to rain, we didn’t stop walking though.

The blood was starting to wash away, if too much goes and they smell we’re not dead, we are so dead meat.  A couple of walkers were looking at us, oh no, I thought it’s not working any more.  I looked around and saw more staring at us and making noises of interest I’m guessing.

“The smells washing off it’s it?”  I asked.  “Is it washing off?”

“No, it’s not.”  Rick said, I think he said that to keep me calm, I had heard panic in my voice I’m sure he defiantly did.  A walker looked at him, followed him, like the ones behind us.  “Well, maybe.”  He admitted.  I didn’t want to hear that.  One of them finally opened it’s mouth and started to attack Rick lifted the axe and brought it down on his head splitting it.  Rick then shouted an order I was happy to follow.  “Run!”

We ran the walkers behind and in front coming at us.  While Rick took them out with his axe.  I hit them in the head with the crow bar I’d had a firm grip on.  We finally made it to the fence of the construction site.

I saw the axe fly over the fence as I grabbed the top of it and using my feet practically jumped over the fence.  I was in impressed and amazed at myself with how easy that was. I turned and helped Rick over then.  My heart was pounding and the adrenalin was pumping and my head was hurting as my eyes wouldn’t focus when the world decided it wanted to spin in front of me.  Rick helped steady me for a sec then we got back into action.

We took off the coats and gloves that were no longer helping, as we ran from the fence that was getting walkers piled up behind it.  I heard Rick shoot but didn’t dare look back.  I went to the box that should have the keys and using my crow bar busted the lock.  I opened it and grabbed one of the keys.  “Rick!”  I yelled to get his attention.  When he looked at me I tossed him the key.

I couldn’t help myself as I looked back and saw one of the walkers climb over the gate, oh this was bad, this was real bad.  We got to the truck; I started to close the door as Rick got the engine going.  The walker was right at the window as the door closed, I told Rick to go in a panicked voice.

He’d put it in reverse and was going backwards, the gate was starting to come down.  Once they’d pushed it to the ground, they were that much closer to their next meal.   Rick then turned it and headed away from the walkers and away from the store.  He busted through the other gate and turned left, I wasn’t sure where he was going but at the moment I didn’t really care.

“Oh my God, they’re all over that place.”  I said freaking out.

“You need to draw them away.”  Rick told me.  “Those roll up doors at the front of the store…That area? That’s what I need cleared.”  Rick informed me then continued telling me what I needed to do.  “Raise your friends.  Tell them to get down there and be ready.”

I pulled my walkie out as I asked.  “And I’m drawing the Geeks away how?  I-I missed that part.”

“Noise.”  Was his simple answer.  He stopped at a parking lot, we got out he found an expensive car and taking the crow bar from me busted the window in.  The alarm started, I put my hands over my ears.  Well that should work.

He got in and using a screw driver started the car.  We traded places then as he headed back to the truck, I revved the engine then and headed back to the store where the others were waiting.  I followed behind Rick’s delivery truck at first.  I grabbed the walkie and told them what to do.  “Those roll up doors at the front of the store, facing the street.  Meet us there and be ready.”  Is where I told them to go.  Then I went around Rick’s truck to draw the walkers at the store away.  Only someone who’s deaf would miss the noise this car was making.

I looked and saw it was working the walkers were following, this would work.  I drove passed then backed up and got in front of the store and stopped.  Waiting for them to come towards the car, I yelled to myself.  “Get closer, come on, come on.”  Then with it still in reverse headed back with the walkers following.  Once I was sure they were all following I spun the car around and started to take off.

I continued to drive, at some point I lost the walkers.  But you know it didn’t matter because I was having a blast driving this awesome car at top speed without a care in the world.  I did hope Rick and the others made it out, I started for the high way and headed to the mountains and the camp site, if they’d made it I’ll see them there.  I was shouting and screaming in pure adrenaline, this is so much fun.  Is what I thought, the whole way there.


	3. Tell it to the Frogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or show, or any of it, I'm just having fun with them.
> 
> A/N: Thoughts will be in italics.

Tell it to the Frogs

Rick's POV

 

It was a couple of hours since we left Atlanta and Merle behind; I was driving the delivery truck, Morales sitting in the passenger seat.  The girls Andrea and Jacqui with T-Dog were in the back and Glenn was off in a pretty cool ride probably having the time of his life.  “Best not to dwell on it, Merle got left behind.”  Morales spoke up, my thoughts had been heading that way to the man we’d abandoned.  I looked at him for a second it’s easy to tell he’d hit the nail on the head of my thoughts.  “Nobody’s gonna be sad he didn’t come back…”  Morales continued, _still doesn’t make it right._

“Except maybe Daryl.”  I looked at him again.

“Daryl?”  I asked confused.

“His brother.”  Morales explained.  I felt even worst then; my thoughts got derailed as I heard the alarm from Glenn’s car coming up next to us.  I could hear Glenn from the car, I saw his hand go out the window in a fist pump, he was having a great time.  I followed behind as we drove out of Atlanta and into the hills where a lot of people use to camp before now, I always meant to take Carl camping but I never had the time.  Now I may never see my son again or Lori.

“At least somebody’s having a good day.”  Morales said.  I agreed with him, it was good to see that, it helped a little bit with my doom and gloom mood.

It was a long trip the alarm from Glenn’s car stopped a few minutes before we pulled up to camp.  I saw him and a bunch of people gathered at the car; then looked at Morales as he patted my arm saying.  “Come meet everybody.”  Then started to get out, I stopped the engine before rubbing the bridge of my nose.  I think it was more emotional exhaustion than anything else that I felt

The idea of telling Daryl that we had abandoned his brother on top of a department store was not my idea of a great first meeting.  On top of that I still had to find my wife and son, as well as my best friend if they were even still alive.

Before I got out of the truck I heard voices, one man’s, who I will later come to know as Dale said.  “You are a welcome sight.  I thought we had lost you folks for sure.”  Not sure who he’d been talking to but they were laughing.

My mind still tumbled and the loss of Merle heavy on my thoughts I didn’t even recognize his voice, but it was Shane that asked.  “How y’all get out of there anyway?”

“New guy, he got us out.”  Glenn informed, I’d know his voice anywhere, after all he saved my life first.

“New guy?”  Shane asked.

Morales answered that one.  “Yeah, crazy vato just got into town.  Hey, helicopter boy! come say hello.”  _Now or never_ I thought, I opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him, I walked a little ways as Morales continued speaking.  “The guy’s a cop like you.”

When I looked up, I couldn’t believe who I saw, it was Shane, my best friend, my partner.  He was alive, and that stirred hope in me that so was my family.  The look on his face, one of shock and surprise made me breathless, I didn’t know what to do and clearly neither did he as he just stood there his shotgun slightly lack in his hand.

Then I looked over and saw them, not far away, Lori talking to Carl who looked at me, that’s all it took to get my feet moving.  “Oh my God.”  I whispered, in both shock and a silent prayer of thanks.  They were both alive and safe.

Carl pulled away from Lori and started running to me screaming for me, Lori chased after him as if she couldn’t or didn’t want to believe I was there.  I couldn’t hold it in as I got closer to him my emotions broke down and I started to cry, tears of pure joy as I got on my knees embracing him, my son.  “Carl.”  I cried holding him in my arms for the first time since I woke up to this nightmare.

 

It took a moment for me to get my balance as I stood up still holding Carl I headed to Lori, I kissed Carl on the head; she was still in shock.  But as I got closer she finally took the last few steps and wrapped her arms around me holding on, I never wanted to let them go.  I hugged her with one arm while holding Carl with the other.  I had my family back together, safe and alive, and I never wanted to lose them again.

Once everything had settled down we sat to eat and I started to tell my story, beginning with waking up alone in the hospital, I talked about my physical pain, the fear at the locked door with someone trying to get out, I talked about the bodies I saw, the woman who should’ve been dead but wasn’t, I should say half a woman.  The first thing I’d done was get on a bicycle I’d stumbled across, it’d been next to the woman, and peddled home for Lori and Carl.  When I got there the place was empty, clothes gone, pictures taken at first I didn’t know what to think.

“I walked inside screaming for you two, I didn’t know what was happening, but once I could think straight past my fear I went back outside, sat on one of the steps to our front door just looking.  A man had been there in a suit I thought he was alive he was headed for me I never heard the kid behind me until he hit me in the head with a shovel.”  I paused in my story to take a drink of water that Amy had been kind enough to get me, I felt Lori next to me I put my hand in hers before continuing.

“This man thought I was one of them, threatened to kill me but then I passed out.  When I came to I was tied to a bed with him questioning me about my gunshot wound, thinking I’d been bit.  I told I hadn’t been he cut me loose.  They fed me, explained things too, what had happened while I was out.  They’d been staying at Fred and Cindy Drakes.”  I explained to Lori, they’d been good people; we’d had dinner with them on several occasions.

“The man he’d shot, before I passed out the man in the suit he’d been a walker, at the time I didn’t know that, I didn’t even know what a walker was.  That night, that first night I saw them walking, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, they looked alive until they got up close.”  I paused in my story as Glenn asked one of the women if they had something for an upset stomach, whatever had been bothering him in Atlanta had still been bugging him, I thought it was a virus, I had no idea how far off the mark I was.  She was Morales’ wife that got him some crackers, told him they were a little stale but should still help him.  As he ate I continued with my tale.

I explained about the man’s wife, turning the knob, by morning they were gone.  “Taking my first walker was hard, on me, I went back to the house, I knew you were alive.”  I punctuated that sentence with a kiss to both Lori and Carl.  “If it had been ransacked they wouldn’t have taken the pictures, only family would’ve done that.”

“That’s when Duane the little boy mentioned Atlanta, being safe.  I took them to the station, the showers were still working; I finally got to wash and shave, dressed in my uniform and grabbed guns and gear things to help us survive.  I emptied the cage, but I lost the bag in Atlanta.”

I looked at Shane then who was sitting across the camp fire that had been started as the sun was setting and the air was getting cold.  “Shane, I had to shoot Leon Basset, I couldn’t leave him like he was; I even went back and shot that woman I’d first seen before heading for Atlanta.” 

“On the way my car ran out a gas, I tried the radio no one could hear me.”

“Wait you were on the radio.”  Amy piped up then, that’s when it came out the stranger on the radio had been me.

“I found this house, farm, with a horse, no gas so I put the bag on my back and rode the horse the rest of the way to Atlanta where it went down, I ended up in a tank and Glenn saved my life.”  I skipped over what I found in the house; Carl didn’t need to know about that.

“What was it like, to wake up to all this, emotionally?”  Amy asked, the sun had set and it was dark starting to get late.

 At some point Carl found his way against my chest and Lori had moved her arm around mine.  “Disoriented, that comes closest.”  I explained of my feelings, the emotions I’d held back of my ordeal waking up alone in that hospital.

The others: Glenn, T-Dog, Amy leaning into Andrea, Morales’ family and Dale, all listening as I continued to talk.  “Fear, confusion, all those things but disoriented it comes closest.”

“Words can be meager things.”  Dale said as he placed his cup on the ground.  “Sometimes they fall short.”  Dale was a wise man; in the coming weeks I’d find that he was the best among us.

“I felt like I’d been ripped out of my life, and put somewhere else.  For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever.”  Lori was running her hands through Carl’s hair, listening, I don’t think it had been easy on her hearing this, but it was something that at the time I needed to say.

Carl looked up at me then and it broke my heart to hear what he had to say.  “Mom said you died.”

“She had every reason to believe that.”  I told him as I put my arm around him and held his face in my hand.  “Don’t you ever doubt it?”

“When things started to get really bad.”  Lori started, back then I hadn’t understood the looks between her and Shane, I knew that stuff had happened, truth was I just didn’t want to know, I was here now that was all that mattered.  I should’ve cared to know more then, maybe things could’ve worked out differently.  “They told me at the hospital that they were gonna Medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened.”  She was playing with our sons hair, her other arm around me, my free arm around her, just a touch, a soothing touch on both of them.

“Well, I’m not surprised after Atlanta fell.”  I informed her.  “And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun.”

“Yeah, looks don’t deceive I barely got them out.”  Shane informed me.

“You know?  I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane.  I can’t begin to express it.”  At the time, I was grateful, still am.  But things change, people change, sometimes I think Shane was better suited for this new world then I was, that’s what made us clash.

Dale with impeccable timing.  “There are those words falling short again, paltry things.”

We heard wood clatter and fire spit up as more food was added to a different camp fire.  Shane spoke to the man, he had a wife and daughter, treated them both horribly.  “Hey Ed, you want to rethink that log?”  Shane asked him.

“It’s cold man.”  He spoke back not looking at us as I saw his wife bundle up with a blanket.

“The cold don’t change the rules, does it?”  Shane asked.  I had a feeling that a different fire was being stoked.  He looked at me taking in my non-verbal question and answering.  “Keep our fires low just embers.  So we can’t be seen from a distance, right?”  That last one was for Ed.

“I said its cold.”  He informed Shane clearly not caring for the rules or the safety of anyone at this camp right now.  “You should mind your own business for once.”  He told Shane; that just pissed Shane off.  He got up and headed to the other fire; I watched him go then looked at Lori wondering if this was their only confrontation with the man.

He patted the guy to get his attention, walked around so he could look him in the eye and not the back of his head.  “Hey Ed.  Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?”  He asked softly I barely picked it up.

Ed spoke up not softly, to his wife.  “Go on, pull the damn thing out.”  As she hesitated to move he said more forcefully.  “Go on.”  She got up putting the blanket on the lawn chair she’d been resting in and pulled the wood from the fire.  Shane was disgusted I’d seen that look before when we’d taken down a criminal; he stomped out the fire from the recently burning log.

The woman sat back down, I watched catching what was being said, we weren’t that far.  He crouched down to eye level.  “Hey Carol, Sophia how are y’all this evening?”  Thinking of Sophia makes me sad, but Carol’s a strong woman, she had to be with the trash she use to call a husband.

“Fine, we’re just fine.”  Carol tells him, it was hard to get a read on her back then.

“Okay.”  Shane tells hers.

“I’m sorry about the fire.”  Carol apologized, but it wasn’t from her, it was for her husband.  I got the sense that she did a lot of that, apologizing for her husband’s actions.

“No, no, no, no apology needed.”  Shane informed her, it wasn’t her fault.  “Y’all have a good night, okay?”  Shane asked before standing back up.

“Thank you.”  Carol said sweetly, she’s always been sweet and kind and easy prey for men like Ed, always seeing the good in someone, at least she used to be, not so sure about that these days.

“I appreciate the cooperation.”  Then Shane walked back to our camp.

Our subject turned to something a little grimmer as Dale spoke up about someone I’d been trying not to think about.  “Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?  He won’t be happy to hear his brother was left behind.”  He asked.

“I’ll tell him.  I dropped the key it’s on me.”  T-Dog said.

“I cuffed him that makes it mine.”  I wasn’t going to let T-Dog take the heat for this.

“Guy’s, it’s not a competition.  I don’t mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy.”  Glenn told us, Merle was a raciest, there’s a good chance that his brother is to, I hadn’t met the guy so I didn’t know, but they have.  Sounds like I needed to be the one to tell him.

“I did what I did.”  T-Dog says.  “Hell if I’m gonna hide from him.”

“We could lie.”  Amy piped up next.

“Or tell the truth.”  Andrea started.  “Merle was out of control, something had to be done or he’d have gotten us killed.”  She looked Lori in the eye as she spoke her mind, something Andrea never had a problem doing.  “Your husband did what was necessary, and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody’s fault but Merle’s.”

“And that’s what we _tell_ Daryl?”  Dale asked in a voice that clearly stated ‘that’s a bad idea.’  “I don’t see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?”  He asked Andrea, she just shook her head after pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them, Dale was right.

“Word to the wise—“Dale looked around at us.  “We’re gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt.”

“I was scared and I ran.”  T-Dog said, trying to martyr himself.  “I’m not ashamed of it.”

“We were all scared, we all ran, what’s your point?”  Andrea asked him.

“I stopped long enough to chain that door.  Staircase is narrow.”  Glenn and everyone were looking at him then with rapt attention.  “Maybe half a dozen Geeks can squeeze against it at any one time.  It’s not enough to break through that—not that chain, not that padlock.  My point—“He paused then,  we were on the ropes of what he’d been getting at.  “Dixon’s alive.

And he’s still up there handcuffed on that roof.  That’s on us.”  He was right, we’re all to blame for what went down with Dixon, and now we have to fess up to his brother about what we’d done.

Everyone decided to turn in for the night, Glenn headed to his tent with what few crackers he had left, Andrea and Amy share a tent, Dale went to his R.V, I headed back with Lori and Carl to the tent they’d been staying in, Shane decided to be first watch that night, I had no idea how close he and Lori had gotten at the time, it was a chain reaction that would end in disaster.

Lori changed into shorts and t-shirt as I tucked Carl in his bed, a small cot with sleeping bag to keep him warm, he knelt next to him.  “I found you didn’t I?”  I said as I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Love you dad.”

“I love you, Carl.”  I kissed his forehead and just sat there watching as he rolled over and went to sleep.  I’d put on some shorts that Lori had packed from my clothes, I decided not to ask her about it as I took off my shirt and walked over to her pallet, where she was lying and just watching me.  I got down and put my arm around her as I kissed her, the first real kiss since I’d seen them that afternoon.  I got behind her and laid down, she grabbed my hand and held it as I spooned closed to her for the night. 

I kissed her cheek as we got settled, then I whispered to her.  “I found you both.”

“Yeah.”  She said.

“I knew I would.”   
There’s wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would find them.

“You’re getting cocky now, a little bit.”

“No.  No, I knew, walking into our home, finding an empty house, both of you gone.”

“I’m so sorry.”  There’s true regret in her voice.

“I _knew_ you were alive.”

Thunder rumbled above us as she asked her next question on the verge of tears.  “How?”

“The photos were gone, all our family albums remember.”  I told her.  She laughed as she reached up and pulled one such album out.  “I told you so.”  She was looking at me with those big brown eyes, watering and filled with love.

“Now you’re getting cocky, huh?  A lot.”  She asked; then opened the album so we could look at the pictures, our memories.  I pulled out a picture I’d found in the house, it had been left behind from my pants pocket and placed it in the album.  “It belongs in here.”  It was a family portrait only a couple of months before I got shot, and woke to this mess.

“Baby, I really thought I would never see you again.  I’m so sorry…”  She looks at me again and the thunder rumbled some more.  “For everything, I feel like—when you were in the hospital I just—I wanted to take it all back—the anger and the bad times.   But the mistakes—“  I placed my hand on her cheek and kissed her again to stop her talking, I wasn’t angry at her, not then, there are plenty of things I regret as well, the later months are one of those regrets and I can’t say I’m sorry and it’ll be better, not any more.  I had a chance and I’d blown it, but back to where I’d been.  I’d kissed her.

“Maybe we got a second chance, not many people get that.”  I leaned down and kissed her again with a passion.  As I broke the kiss she pulled out her necklace, it was a heart locket with my wedding ring on it.

“I wondered where that went.”

“Do you want it back?”  _What kind of question was that?_

“Of course.”  I told her.  She then unhooked the chain and pulled it off.  Then placed it where it belonged, my ring finger.  I haven’t taken it off since.

She reached across turned the lamp off as we started kissing again, getting down to some serious making up.  I looked at Carl’s sleeping form.  “He won’t wake up.”  She told me.  The rain had started to come down and the thunder wasn’t as close.  As I started to make love to Lori, kissing her, loving her.

We didn’t waste time stripping our clothes, as I kissed her all over and slowly entered her body, we kept our noises down so not to wake Carl.  I went slow and easy and took my time as I loved her and she kissed me and held me close the whole time, after we both climaxed I settle next to her and it wasn’t long before we’re both asleep in each other’s arms.

I woke the next morning to the sounds of birds and children playing, I was alone as I rolled onto my back.  The rain had stopped and the sun was out, I looked down and saw jeans, shirt and sneakers put out for me, I checked my bandage as I got up, it was good; then I dressed before leaving the tent.  I told a couple of people morning as I walked by looking for Lori and Carl.  Getting my barrens about the camp and the people here, watching as they went about the morning.  I saw Carol taking care of some clothes.

“Morning.”  She said as I walked up.

“Morning.”

“They’re still a little damp.”  She explained of my clothes she’d been taking care of.  “The sun’ll have ‘em dry in no time.”

“You washed my clothes?”  I asked surprised.

“Well, best we could, scrubbing on a washboard ain’t half as good as my old may tag back home.”

“That’s very kind thank you.”  That was the first impression I got of Carol, a woman kind enough to wash a strangers clothes, she was too good for that husband of hers.

I moved over to where Glenn was standing close by watching the red sports car he’d driven up here.  “Look at ‘em, vultures.”  He was watching Dale, Morales and Jim taking it apart, it was a sad thing, but these days you don’t need a fast fancy car you need a reliable car that has more use then its looks.

“Yeah, go on strip it clean.”  Glenn told ‘em.

“Generators need every drop of fuel they can get.”  Dale told him as he passed with a gas can from the recently stiffened gas from the car.  “Got no power without it, sorry, Glenn.”  He patted his arm and then headed off.

“Thought I’d get to drive it at least a few more days.”  Glenn seemed so sad standing there with his head hanging down wearing that red cap; never seen him anywhere without that cap.  He had his arms crossed over his chest, I took pity on him and tried to cheer him up.

“Maybe we’ll get to steal another one someday.”  I

 

patted his back then headed to where I saw Lori hanging laundry on a line.

“Morning, officer.”  She said as I walked up, she was smiling, it was a glorious sight.

“Hey.” I said as I noticed Amy and Andrea were smiling as they watched us, they were standing close by taking care of their own clothes.

“You sleep okay?”  Lori asked.

“Better than in a long time.”

She chuckled softly.  “Well, I didn’t want to wake you; I figured you could use it.  God, what?”  She asked to the expression on my face.

“I’ve been thinking, about the man we left behind.”  I couldn’t get him off my mind, I thought I needed to go back for him, if T-Dog was right and he’s still alive, I had to do the right thing, I didn’t say that just yet.

“You’re not serious.”  But she figured out where I was going with that last statement.  A jeep driven by Shane showed up then as he pulled up and parked.

“Water’s here y’all.  Just a reminder to boil before use.”  I waved as he looked in our direction then looked back at Lori.

“Are you asking me or telling me?”  She asked getting back to our conversation.

“Asking.”

“Well I think it’s crazy.”  _Don’t sugar coat it darlin’_ I think, she continues.  “I think it’s just the stupidest way to break your—“She’s broken off as we hear a scream, and then Carl’s calling.

“MOM!”

“Carl?”  Lori called as we both took off.

“DAD!”  Others were grabbing guns and whatever was handy then followed.

I heard a girl calling.  “MOMMY! MOMMY!”

“Rick!”  Glenn called as he ran behind me, I turn and he threw me a pipe, I caught it not stopping in my strides to get to Carl.  Lori was calling for our son, as we raced through the camp and woods to where we could hear the screams coming from. We finally saw the kids as they ran to us, Carl right into Lori’s arms and the other girl, I later get her name as Sophie ran to Carol.

We ran to where they’d been playing, Lori asking Carl if he’d been bit or scratched, he assures her no, I lost the rest of it as I headed deeper down the hill we’re camped.   With Morales, Shane and Glenn behind me.

We made it to a clearing where there was a downed deer and a walker was making a meal out of it.  Shane aimed his shot gun as we took in our surroundings and we figured there’s only the one.   There were two arrows in the butt of this Doe that’s being fed on.  I saw a third arrow protruding from its chest; it had to have been what took the deer down before the walker found it.

It started noticing the growing audience around it as Dale and some of the others from camp had joined us.  The women were watching from a little further back.  It turned to me and with a growl headed to attack me I hit it with the metal rod Glenn had tossed to me.  Shane hit it with the butt of his shot gun, Glenn got a hit with his pipe, it fell to the ground and then we all wailed on it, until Dale finally took his ax and cut the fuckers head off.

“It’s the first one we’ve had up here.  They never come this far up the mountain.”  Dale said.

“Well, they’re running out of food up the city, that’s what.”  Jim told us.

It wasn’t long after that, only a few seconds before we heard branches breaking, my thought went to another walker, everyone else as well as we prepared to attack again, Shane even aimed his gun as we waited.  But it wasn’t a walker, just a man, with short light brown hair and a cross bow in one hand.  Clearly the man that shot the Doe, at the time I had no idea who he was, but I made a guess from what I’d heard.  It was Daryl Dixon, Merle’s brother.

“Oh, Jesus.”  Shane said with relief in his voice as he dropped his gun.

“Son of a bitch.”  Daryl said as he walked out of the woods and into the clearing where the Doe and the headless walker were.

“That’s my deer.  Look at it all gnawed on by this…Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!”  He punctuated each thing at the walker as he kicked it.  It was clear he wasn’t happy about the loss of his deer.  So, first impression of Daryl, he had a temper.

“Calm down son, that’s not helping.”  Dale told him.

“What do you know about it, old man?”  He asked Dale anger still in his voice.  “Why don’t you take that stupid hat and go back to ‘On Golden Pond.’”  Dale was wearing a light tan brimmed hat, like from the movie On Golden Pond.  Daryl turned back to the deer with a sigh of frustration.

“I’ve been tracking this deer for miles.”  He started taking his arrows out as he continued, in a calmer voice.  “Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison.  What do you think?  Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?”  He asked the group.

“I would not risk that.”  Shane told him.

“That’s a damn shame.”  Daryl said at the end of a sigh, only this time it was a sigh of accepting the situation for what it was his temper cooled and demeanor less hostile.  Second impression I got, Daryl’s nothing like his brother.

“I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so, that’ll have to do.”  He told us as he fixed a brown cord with the squirrels hanging from it on his shoulder, he was wearing a brown sleeveless shirt and jeans, he had some blondish brown goatee and mustache, he wasn’t a bad looking man, if I swung that way of course. 

The walkers head came alive then as it started opening and closing its mouth, I heard Amy.  “Oh God.”  Before she turned and walked away with her sister.

“Come on people what the hell?”  Daryl asked as he took his cross bow aimed it and shot an arrow right through the walker’s eye.  He then removed it.  “It’s gotta be the brain, don’t y’all know nothing?”  He asked before walking back to camp.  I watched him go then headed that way too, it was confirmed who he was the next couple of minutes, that’s when I got my third impression of Daryl.

“Merle.”  He called.  “Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!  I got us some squirrel!  Let’s stew ‘em up.”  Shane put his gun in the jeep as he called to him.

“Daryl, just slow up a bit, I need to talk to you.”  Shane walked up to him.

“About what?”  He sounded suspicious and a little confused at what was going on.  The rest of us, Glenn, Morales, Dale and I were watching and waiting for Shane to give Daryl the bad news.

“About Merle.  There was a—There was a problem in Atlanta.”  The girls were watching from the R.V, Andrea, Amy, and Lori standing there as Shane faced Daryl.

Daryl looked in our direction.

“He dead?”  Daryl asked as he started to walk a little to the right and stopped a good five feet in front of the jeep.

“We’re not sure.”

“He either is or he ain’t!”  Daryl said to Shane as his temper started to rise again.

I step in then as I walked up to him.  “No easy way to say this so I’ll just say it.”  It’s my responsibility to tell Daryl, not Shane’s.  Daryl looked at me.

“Who are you?”  He asked.

“Rick Grimes.”  I informed him.

“Rick Grimes-” He said my name as some sort of insult, I didn’t take it personally, he was just angry and I knew he wasn’t going to like what I had to say.  “You got something you want to tell me?”  He asked.

I chose for the truth.  “Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof hooked him to a piece of metal.  He’s still there.”  At this point T-Dog came back to camp after having gone for wood his arms loaded as he took in the scene, I saw him, before putting my attention back on Daryl.

Daryl turned his back on us then, on me.  “Hold on, let me process this.  You’re saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?!”  Daryl yelled at me, he was angry working on getting pissed and I didn’t blame him.  Third impression, he loved his brother, the strongest impression I’d ever gotten from him at that time, was he loved his brother.

“Yeah.”  I confirmed, Daryl then threw the squirrels at me, I ducked them as Shane cut him off from attacking which he’d been about to do.

“Hey.”  T-Dog said as he dropped the logs and headed to Daryl and Shane.  Daryl had been knocked to the ground; he pulled a knife from his boot.  “Watch the knife.”  T-Dog warned.

Daryl came at me again slashed, I dodged, he tried again I grabbed his arm.  Later I found out that Glenn was freaking out, trying not to because the guy he loved was trying to kill the guy he saved.  With Shane’s help I finally got him restrained and under control

“Okay, okay.”  Shane said in his ear as I got Daryl to release the knife.  I picked up the knife and put it in the back of my jeans.

“You’d best let me go!”  Daryl told him as Shane put his arm around Daryl’s neck.

“Nah, I think it’s better if I don’t.”

“Don’t hurt him.”  Glenn said, I glanced at him and saw unshed tears in his eyes.  I’m not sure if Daryl noticed or not, but that was my first clue there had been more going on between Daryl and Glenn.

“Choke holds illegal.”  Daryl told Shane as he was pushed to the ground.

“You can file a complaint.”  Shane said calmly as he continued to fight with Daryl until Daryl ran out of steam.

“Come on man, we’ll keep this up all day.”  Shane told him, Daryl was panting and breathing hard and some tears from Glenn finally fell as he turned his back to what was going on so he could compose himself, I got down to Daryl’s level on the ground where Shane was holding him.

“I’d like to have a calm discussion on this topic.  Do you think we can manage that?”  He didn’t answer so I asked again.  “Do you think we can manage that?”

“Hmm.”  Shane said with one arm still around Daryl’s throat his other hand on Daryl’s forehead as his fighting slowly stopped he barely nodded, so Shane let him go.  I’d glanced back at Glenn who was watching with the rest again, looking as if he’d never shed a tear.

I was back to business. “What I did was not on a whim.”  I told Daryl who was still on the ground.  “Your brother does not work and play well with others.”  T-Dog chose that moment to speak up.

“It’s not Rick’s fault, I had the key, I dropped it.”

“You couldn’t pick it up?”  Daryl asked agitated.

“Well, I dropped it in a drain.”

Daryl got to his hands and knees panting, the rest of us waited for his next move.  He stood up, threw some dirt on the ground as he spoke to T-Dog.  “If it’s supposed to make me feel better, it don’t.”  He walked a little closer to T-Dog but keeping a safe distance from him.

“Well, maybe this will.  Look I chained the door to the roof—so the geeks couldn’t get at him—with a padlock.”  He informed Daryl.

“It’s gotta count for something.”  I said to his back.  He looked to me, then T-Dog, then the ground, he wiped his eyes I’m sure tears.

“Hell with all y’all!”  Daryl yelled at us as he threw his hand in a wide sweep.  “Just tell me where he is.”  There was hysteria and a note of pleading in his voice.  “So’s I can go get him.”  He was coming at me then, when Lori spoke.

“He’ll show you.”  My wife the woman that’s constantly changing her mind and not knowing what she truly wants.  I loved her, in a lot of ways I still do, but bad things happen.

“Isn’t that right?”  She asked.

“I’m going back.”  Lori turned into the R.V and went inside then.  Daryl walked away; I sighed before going to the tent and change into the clean clothes Carlo had taken care of for me.  I walked out of the tent as I’m buttoning up my uniform.  I saw Shane there just waiting for me.

“So that’s it, huh?  You’re just gonna walk off?  Just to hell with everybody else?”  He asked.

“I’m not saying to hell with anybody—not you Shane; Lori least of all.”  I walk off; he kept talking to my back.

“Tell _her_ that.”

I look at him.  “She knows.”  I don’t stay long to hear a reply time’s a wasting and so is the light.

He follows me still talking.  “Well, look, I—I don’t okay, Rick?  So could you just—could you throw me a bone here, man?  Could you just tell me why?”  I noticed Daryl grabbing his cross bow and arrows. “Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?”

“Hey, choose your words more carefully.”  Daryl told him using one of his arrows to point at him, but keeping the sharp tip at his inner arm so it didn’t hurt anyone.

Shane looked at him as he replied.  “Oh, no, I did.  Douche bag’s what I meant.  Merle Dixon—the guy wouldn’t give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst.”  We’ve stopped walking and I’ve faced him now.

“What he would or wouldn’t do doesn’t interest me.  _I_ can’t let a man die of thirst— _me_.  Thirst and exposure.  We left him like an animal caught in a trap, that’s no way for anything to die let alone a human being.”  Lori was sitting at one of the camp fires that hadn’t been lit yet spoke up.

“So you and Daryl that’s your big plan?”  Carl was sitting next to her and Amy was standing right there just like everyone else watching and listening to what was being said.  I looked at her before turning to Glenn who was standing in front of what use to be that nice sports car, now it’s just a pile of steel not going anywhere.

He knew what I was going to ask. “Oh, come on.”  It was clear he didn’t want to go back.

“You know the way, you’ve been there before—in and out no problem, you said so yourself.”  He took off his cap and ran his hand through his hair.  If I’d known what had been growing inside him, I would never had suggested it and Daryl sure as hell wouldn’t have let him come even if he’d wanted to, but sad thing is, at the time, we had no idea.

He put his cap back on as I continued to talk him into leading us.  “It’s not fair of me to ask—I know that—but I’d feel a lot better with you along.  I know she would too.”  I pointed to Lori.

“That’s just great, now you’re gonna risk three men, huh?”  Shane asked.

“Four.”  T-Dog chimes in as he volunteers.

Daryl huffed while he’s cleaning his arrows.  “My day just gets better and better, don’t it?”

“You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother’s cracker ass?”  T-Dog asked him.

“Why you?”  Is Daryl’s reply.

“You wouldn’t even begin to understand, you don’t speak my language.”

“That’s four.”  Dale said.

“It’s not just four; you’re putting every single one of us at risk.”  Shane told me.  “Just know that Rick, come on, you saw that walker.  It was _here_ it was in _camp._   They’re moving out of the cities.  They come back we need every able body we’ve got, we need ‘em here we need ‘em to _protect_ camp.”  He’d moved up closer to me as he spoke trying to get his point across.

“It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns.”  I informed him.

“Right, the guns.”  Glenn said catching onto what I was getting at.

“Wait, the guns you dropped?”  Shane asked remembering last night of the retelling I’d given.

“Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns.”  I listed off what had been in the bag.  “It’s just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up.”

“Ammo?”  Shane asked, he looked slightly more interested then.

“700 rounds, assorted.”

“You went through hell to find us.  You just got here and you’re gonna turn around and leave?”  Lori asked.

“Dad, I don’t want you to go.”  Carl told me.

“To hell with the guns Shane is _right.”_   Lori would say one thing and then do something completely different; she never knew what she wanted.  She was like that before the walkers, looked like it hadn’t changed any. 

“Merle Dixon?”  She questioned.  “He’s not worth one of your lives even with guns thrown in.”  She stood up, it was clear then she was scared and I could understand.  I walked over to her as she continued to talk.  “Tell me, make me understand.”

“I owe a debt to Morgan and his little boy.  Lori, if they hadn’t taken me in, I’d have died.  It’s because of them that I made it back to you at all.  They said they’d follow me to Atlanta, they’ll walk into the same trap I did if I don’t warn him.”

“What’s stopping you?”  She asked.

“The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped, he’s got the other one, our plan was to connect when they got closer.”

“These are our walkies?”  Shane asked.

“Yeah.”  I’d taken them from the squad car we used before I got shot.

“So use the C.B. what’s wrong with that?”  Andrea asked.

“The C.B.’s fine.  It’s the walkies that suck to crap—date back to the ‘70s, don’t match any other bandwidth—not even the scanners in our cars.”  Shane informed her.

“I need that bag.”  I said with conviction, she looked down, that was her way of giving consent.  I walkrd to Carl then and knelt down in front of where he was sitting.

“Okay?”  I asked.  Carl looked at me, then nodded yes.  “Alright.”  I put my hand on his head.

Daryl and Glenn got the delivery truck ready as T-Dog and I foud a way to get the chain off the door once we get there.  I got some news about Dale and headed over to him.  “Rumor is you have bolt cutters?”  I asked.

“Maybe.”  Dale said.

“Yeah, we get to that roof, though; we’ll need to cut that chain and the handcuffs.”  T-Dog informed Dale.

“I never like lending tools, the last time I did—and yes I am talking about you—“  Dale pointed to T-Dog then continued.  “Let’s just say your bag of guns wasn’t the only bag that was dropped.  My tools got left behind with Merle.”

“We’ll bring your tools back too.”  I told him.  “Think of the bolt cutters as an investment.”

“Sounds like more of a gamble.”  Dale mumbled as he got the cutters.  Before handing them over Dale asked.  “What do I get in return?”

“What do you want?”  I asked back. 

“How ‘bout one of those guns you bring back, my pick.”

“Done.”

Jim clears his throat; he’d been sitting next to Dale as we’d discussed the bolt cutters.  “Dale, let’s uh… sweeten the deal a bit.    Now that cube van of yours—“

“What about it?”  I asked when he paused.

“The R.V’s radiator hose is shot.  That’s a problem if we need to get somewhere and wanna get very far, and the hose on that van is just about a perfect match—well, enough that I can make it fit.”

“I’ll tell you what—we get back, you can strip that van down to the bare metal.”  I hear the vans horn honking, I turn and Daryl’s there and he turned to us then and yelled.  “Come on, let’s go!”

Dale hands me the bolt cutters.  “Thank you.”  I pass it to T-Dog as we walk to the truck.

“Hey, Rick, got any rounds in the python?”  Shane asked after we stopped at the truck.  He had one of the sheriff bags and placed it on the back of the van before opening it.

“No.”  I told him.

“Last time we were on the gun range, I’m sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours.”  I shook my head as I watched him.

 

“You and that bag—like the bottom of an old lady’s purse.”

“I hate that you’re doing this, man.  I think that it’s foolish and reckless, but if you’re gonna go you’re taking bullets.”  Shane always spoke his mind not giving a damn on how it came out.

“I’m not sure I’d want to fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time.”  I told him.

“That’s up to you.”  He held some ammo for my gun in his hands.  “Four men, four rounds.  What are the odds, huh?  Well, let’s just hope that—let’s just hope four is your lucky number, okay?”  He hands me the bullets.

“Thank you.”  I told him, then went to get in the front of the truck.

“Alright.”  He said as I left.

I got into the passenger side next to Glenn, pulled out my handgun, opened the chamber, and loaded the four bullets Shane had given me.  I heard the back of the truck be pulled down; I saw it was Daryl who’d closed it before focusing on my gun again.  Glenn started it up again, revved it and then headed out to Atlanta.

Daryl and T-Dog were talking in the back as Glenn was driving and I was listening in.  “He’d better be okay; it’s my only word on the matter.”  Daryl told T-Dog.

“I told you the geeks can’t get at him.  The only thing that’s gonna get through that door is us.”  Glenn parked the truck then and shut it off.  He turned to us.

“We walk from here.”  It was some train station with railroad tracks that Glenn had chosen to park.  We got out of the truck and started for the store.  T-Dog must’ve been wrapped up in thought, he’d set the bolt cutters down at some point during the ride and forgot them.  We didn’t know this until we needed them.

We ran until we found a fence to get us in the back way, Glenn went to a part that was cut and pushed it aside so we could get through.  Once on the other side I turned to the group and asked.  “Merle first or guns?”

“Merle!”  Daryl said.   “We ain’t even having this conversation.”

“We are.”  I told him emphatically.  I looked to Glenn then.  “You know the geography it’s your call.”

“Merle’s closest; the guns would mean doubling back.  Merle first.”  Later after I found out his feelings for Daryl, I asked Glenn if he’d been telling the truth about picking Merle first, he said partly, the other part was because he loved Daryl.  I respected his honesty.

Once we got to the store we went slowly, took our time, being careful.  I stopped them as I saw something, looked to Daryl and Glenn; pointed to my eyes then the walker I’d seen at one of the aisles of clothes.

It had been a woman, she came out from behind a manikin, and Daryl took point then with his cross bow.  He moved so he’d have an unobstructed shot.  “Damn, you are one ugly skank.”  He lined up the shot and got her right in the head, she went down like a sack of potatoes.  Daryl walked up to her and pulled his arrow out, it was a sickening sound, Glenn looked a little sick but controlled himself.

We got to the stairs and started to run up to the locked door, thankful that it was clear of any walkers.  I saw the padlock and looked to T-Dog who was empty handed; no one had the bolt cutters.   Daryl looked at us.  “You shit.”   He grabbed the chain and started to pull and yank calling for his brother on the other side letting him know we’re here.  There was no answer to his calls.

After a few minutes Glenn grabbed Daryl’s shirt and pulled him away.  “We’ll get to him Daryl.”  I heard as he walked away to calm Daryl down.  I grabbed the padlock and looked at it, I grabbed the chains with my other hand, there was some blood on it from Daryl’s hand where he’d pulled and yanked, I looked and saw Glenn putting a bandanna around his left hand where it was bleeding as they were talking in hushed tones.  In my anger I pulled and there was a loud snap as the chains broke as if they’d been made of paper instead of metal, the padlock had snapped in my grip when I’d tightened my hand in frustration I hadn’t even realized it.  T-Dog saw this and called Glenn and Daryl back, they saw the chain and what I’d done, but instead of questioning it we opened the door and ran out onto the roof.

“Merle! Merle!”  Daryl called as he ran out to where his brother had been cuffed for the last twenty-four hours.  We stopped as Daryl stopped, Merle wasn’t there, but something much worse was.  “No! No!”  Daryl screamed, he looked at us with anger and tears in his eyes and his emotions took over.  “NO!”  Merle had gotten a saw that had been left up here, and cut his own hand off, leaving it behind, and both the saw and the cuffs were bloody.  Daryl kept screaming no as he broke down.  There was nothing else we could do.


	4. Vatos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing just having fun with them.  
> 

Vatos

Daryl's POV

 

On the way to Merle I had a lot of time to think, on how I got here.  It had started as a simple hunting trip with Dad, Uncle Jess and Buck a family friend, our hunt had come to an abrupt end when Buck and my Dad were attacked, I was too late, when I arrived my dad had been bitten, his intestines hanging out and Jess had shot them, the undead but not before one had taken a bite out Jess’ arm.  I’d wanted to save him, but Jess had been right, there was nothing we could’ve done for him.  I tried to shoot him myself; it’s what dad would’ve wanted, what Merle would’ve done, if he’d been there.  It shouldn’t have been so hard, after mom died dad became a mean drunk, even on a hunt.  He had no idea who I even was, unlike Uncle Jess, who knew me better than dad, Merle or me even.  Jess did it, he shot dad.  I regret not doing it now, giving myself that last goodbye to a man who beat me when he felt like it.  I’m over it.

As we got to the city that cop _Rick Grimes_ back before I got to know him, made a suggestion to go for the guns first, I wouldn’t have any of it.  He let Glenn decide he knew the lay out best, I was starting to re-think what he’d said last time I’d seen him, that he loves me, before all this shit happened.  He said Merle first, so we got there past the walkers I took out, to the stairs that were thankfully empty and the door.  Where we realized we’d forgotten the bolt cutters.

“You shit.”   I yelled at ‘em, then grabbed the chain and started to pull and yank calling for Merle on the other side letting him know we’re here.  There was no answer to my calls, I wondered if he’d passed out from heat exhaustion it wouldn’t be the first time.

After a few minutes Glenn grabbed my shirt and pulled me away.  “We’ll get to him Daryl.”  He told me as he dragged me to a small corner to talk, normally I would’ve fought back, but I didn’t due to my mixed emotions about him at the time, I wouldn’t fight him now because of my feelings for him and what happened over the next several months.  “Daryl it’ll be okay.”  He whispered to me before kissing my cheek I looked and saw T-Dog and Rick at the door, they weren’t watching.  I’d cut my left hand on the chain.  Glenn noticed, he took a bandana from his pocket and started to wrap it over my wound.  That’s when I was starting to say something.  “Glenn, I-“  T-Dog called us back, we quickly turned and saw Rick had snapped the chains with his bare hands, I saw the padlock had snapped in his grip as well, I didn’t take the time to question it as we opened the door and ran out onto the roof.

“Merle! Merle!”  I called as I ran out to where my brother had been cuffed for the last twenty-four hours.  I ran over the small bridge walk way and stopped, Merle wasn’t there, but something much worse was.  “No! No!”  I screamed, I looked at them with anger and tears in my eyes and my emotions took over.  “NO!”  Merle had gotten a saw that had been left up here, and cut his own hand off, leaving it behind, and both the saw and the cuffs were bloody.  I kept screaming no as I broke down.  There was nothing else they could do, but watch the blood they’d let spill.

A few minutes after I’d stopped screaming I was just looking at Merle’s hand.  I heard movement behind me and that’s when my anger spiked.  I held my bow steady as I swung and aimed at T-Dog.  Rick aimed his gun at my head, making that the second time today.  I wouldn’t have missed if I’d just pulled the trigger.

“I won’t hesitate.  I don’t care if every walker in the city hears it.”  Rick told me.  I knew I was out matched, I couldn’t do it anyways I lowered my bow trying to keep my emotions in check.  Rick uncocked and lowered his gun.  I looked at T-Dog with such distain.

“You got a do-rag or something?”  I asked him as I calmed.  He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a blue rag handing it to me.  I set my bow leaning against the pipe then got on one knee laying the rag on the cement I picked up Merle’s hand by the pinky as I spoke.  “I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs.”  I looked at it.  “Ain’t that a bitch.”  I said, then laid the hand on the rag and carefully folded it up.

I stood, looked at Glenn, he had his backpack so I walked over to him moved him slightly as I lifted one of the flaps and placed the hand in it.   “He must have used a tourniquet—maybe his belt.” I said as I looked at the cuffs and blood again.  “Be much more blood if he didn’t.”  I continued.  I followed the trail Rick and Glenn behind me, T-Dog grabbed the tools before following, as I went around a corner there was a second door that at first glance you wouldn’t realize was there.  It had been opened; I continued to follow the trail Merle had left behind.

We got to some stairs, I called out.  “Merle! Merle?  You in here?”  I went down the stairs my bow at the ready should I see any walkers.  That’d been the best name I’d heard ever since this whole nightmare began.  I’ve heard them called every which way.  Eaters, Bitters, Goons, Ghouls, Geeks has to be my favorite, I heard that one from Glenn.  But walkers is the best name for ‘em.

We got downstairs and started to search the rooms; I shot an arrow through a walkers head then went and retrieved it.  I must say I prefer my bow to cop guys’ gun, no noise and I get to re-use my ammo.  Unlike the pistol that Rick used.  I followed the blood and saw a couple of downed walkers.  “Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches.  One-handed.” There was pride in my voice.

I saw the bloody wrench that Merle must’ve used.  I started loading my bow as I continued to talk.  “Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother.  Feed him a hammer he’d crap out nails.”  There was defiant hero worship for him, Merle, I looked up to him back then, things changed, and yet the more they stay the same.  I’m just glad now that I didn’t.

“Any man can pass out from blood loss.”  Rick said as he started to take point.  “No matter how tough he is.”

I passed Rick as the trail moved to another room, I poked my head in.  “Merle!”  I called.

“We’re not alone here.”  Rick whispered at my ear. “Remember?”

“Screw that.”  I told him.  “He could be bleeding out you said so yourself.”  It was some sort of lab we’d found, there was a flame on one of the burners.  There was a bit more blood and Merle’s belt.

“What’s that burned stuff?”  Glenn asked as Rick picked up a flat metal iron that can be used for putting plaster on things or other such jobs, but it wasn’t plaster that was on it.

“Skin.”  Rick informed us.  “He cauterized the stump.”

I looked at him.  “Told you he was tough.  Nobody can kill Merle but Merle.”

“Don’t take that on faith he’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Yeah.”  I said as I walked to a window that Merle broke to escape.  “Didn’t stop him from busting out of this death trap.”  I looked out at the broken glass on the ledge and bloody towels that had once been white.  There was a fire escape so clearly that’s how Merle got down.

“He left the building?  Why the hell would he do that?”  Glenn asked in a whispered voice as he walked up next to me, Rick behind and T-Dog behind Rick looking over, carrying Dale’s tool box.

“Why wouldn’t he?”  I asked.  “He’s out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he’s got to do surviving.”   Rick looked out as I finished speaking.

“You call that surviving?”  T-Dog asked.  “Just wandering out in the streets maybe passing out?  What are his odds out there?”

I rounded on the only black man among us.  “No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks.”  My words meant for T-Dog and Rick, but Rick had been behind me and Glenn was next to T-Dog, the look on his face clearly said he thought I was talking about him as well; I’d have to straighten that out later.  I turned to Rick then.  “You couldn’t kill him.  Ain’t so worried about some dumb dead bastard.”

“What about a thousand dumb dead bastards?”  Rick asked then.  “Different story?”

“Why don’t you take a tally?  Do what you want I’m gonnna go get him.”  I informed Rick.

I moved to pass him, but Rick put his hand on my chest pushing me back as he said.  “Daryl, wait.”

I slapped his hand away. “Get your hands off me!  You can’t stop me.”  I got up in Rick’s face.

“I don’t blame you.  He’s family, I get that.  I went through hell to find mine; I know exactly how you feel.”  Rick understood my feelings, he faced them himself, we started to come to an understanding then.  I didn’t realize at that point in time how loyal a relationship we’d end up having.  He continued speaking after a few seconds of starring at each other.  “He can’t get far with that injury.  We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head.”

I swallowed before I answered.  “I could do that.”

Rick looked at T-Dog then who gave a clear cut answer.  “Only if we get those guns first.  I’m not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?”  I could understand and knowing that we’re still going to find my brother I was cool with that.

We headed to one of the empty offices we’d seen on the way to where my brother had escaped.  We’d discussed plans and Glenn had come up with one.  But I didn’t like it and Rick didn’t like it either he said as much when he spoke.  “You’re not doing this alone.”

“Even I think it’s a bad idea and I don’t even like you much.”  Okay that had been a lie, I liked Glenn, I liked him a lot but back then it was hard for me to express my feelings and frankly the other two had no rights to knowing the affairs that were going on between me and Glenn.

“It’s a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out.”  Glenn said.  Rick pulled his pants up so he could crouch close to Glenn and look over the plan that Glenn had drawn with some erase marker on the floor.  T-Dog was sitting his back against the desk next to Glenn who was on his knees.  I was near the door with one hand on my knee and the other on my cross bow with the front end on the floor I was leaning on it slightly.

“If we go out there in a group, we’re slow, drawing attention.  If I’m alone I can move fast.”  We were listening as he explained.  “Look.”  He moved his hands to the map of the streets he’d drawn and grabbed a paper clip as he talked.   “That’s the tank.”  He explained placing the paper clip where the Tank was outside.  “Five blocks from where we are now.”  He continued.

He took a small wadded up piece of paper and placed it in front of the paper clip that represented the tank. “That’s the bag of guns.”  He said pointing to the paper.  He then pointed to a side street behind one of the buildings he’d drawn up.  “Here’s the alley I dragged you into when we first met.”  He informed us as he looked at Rick.  “That’s where Daryl and I will go.”  He said glancing at me.

“Why me?”  I asked confused.

Glenn explained in terms that worked, I just wanted to make sure he was thinking with his head not his heart which he was always wearing on his sleeve when I first met him.  “Your crossbow is quieter than his gun.”  Using something else he’d gotten off the desk in the office to represent me placed it where the alley is on the map.  “While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street grab the bag.”  He said while moving his hand from the representation of me to the piece of paper.

“You got us elsewhere?”  Rick asked.

“You and T-Dog, right.”  Glenn took a pink eraser and placed it a couple of buildings from the tank, guns and the alley where I’ll be.  “You’ll be in this alley here.”  He explained.

“Two blocks away?  Why?”  Rick asked.

“I may not be able to come back the same way.  Walkers might cut me off. ” As he continued to explain he pointed to the map and my little icon.   “If that happens I won’t go back to Daryl.  I’ll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are.”  Looking between us as he continued.  “Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me.  Afterwards, we’ll all meet back here.”

All this got me to wondering about what he use to do before the walkers, we never talked much after we had sex, at least not back then.  I know pretty much everything about him now but then I didn’t care, I figured Merle and I would be leaving soon anyways, before he’d ended up cuffed to that roof.  So it didn’t matter to make connections.  I asked.  “Hey, kid, what’d you do before all this?”  Glenn was a good ten years younger than me, he had a way about him that was childish; I found it rather cute, he had this puzzled look on his face at the sudden question or interest I should say.  It was adorable, I’d wanted him right then and there because of that look; luckily for me I had control of my lustful urges.

“Delivered pizzas.  Why?”  For a delivery boy he sure is smart and sly, I never answered him though.

We grabbed our stuff and while Rick and T-Dog headed to their location I followed Glenn over the roofs and down the ladder.  On the way he asked me a question.  “What were you going to say?”

“About what?”  I feigned ignorance.

“Before we got to where Merle…you know.  You were going to say something but T-Dog interrupted what was it?”

“We don’t have time for this.”  I told him, we were in a hurry, but truth was I didn’t want to answer his question, I didn’t have an answer.  I knew what I was going say, it was an impulse thing and I had re-thought it and decided now wasn’t the time.

He got to the ladder leading into the alley and looked at me real quick.  “If I don’t make it back I wanna know.”

“Don’t be stupid; I’ll have your back.”  I didn’t even want to think about Glenn not making it, to many emotions at that idea to deal with.

“Fine, so when I make it back, and we find Merle, then you tell me.”  He was letting me off the hook, it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last.  He got pretty good at reading me over the few weeks we’d known each other, even better over the next few years.

“Deal.”  I said he headed down the ladder I followed silently.

We put a little hustle in our steps without full on running as we went down the alley to a chain link fence and a couple of green dumpsters.  We stopped behind one I pulled the string locking it in my crossbow preparing to use it.  This was the first time I’d seen Glenn like this, most the time it was at camp.  So I had to tell him.  “You got some balls for a Chinaman.”

“I’m Korean.”  He corrected me, it’s not the first time, it wasn’t to be the last but as time went on I gained respect for Glenn, back then I barely had respect for myself.

“Whatever.”  I said before he ran to the chain link fence that could be closed but at that time was open.  I placed an arrow in my bow and waited as he headed out, I stayed between the dumpsters my back to one when I heard something, it was quite but I heard it.  I prepared.  I came out my crossbow pointed at this boy.  He immediately started to yell.

“Whoa, don’t shoot me!  What do you want?”

“I’m looking for my brother, he’s hurt real bad you seen him?”  I asked.

“Ayudame*!”  He screamed.

“Shut up!”  I ordered.  “You’re gonna bring the geeks down on us answer me.”

I told him a second time after not getting anything from him the first.  “Answer me.”

“Ayudame!” He yelled out again.  “Ayudame!  Ayudame!”  The third time I had enough I hit him with my bow across the face knocking him down, it split his lip.  He started to call for help screaming and making all kinds of noise

I knelt there putting my hand over his mouth, he struggled with me.  “Shut up, shut up.”  I kept ordering.  I finally got my hand on his mouth to quite him when two more guys showed up.

One guy ran up and kicked me in the side knocking me down, I rolled with it, he started to kick me in my back.  The other guy had a bat started hitting me I curled up to protect myself grunting and groaning with it, but truth was I’d had worse from my own brother.

Suddenly they stopped, I had my head covered but I heard one of the guys say.  “That’s it, that’s the bag, vato* _._ ”  My mind went to Glenn then.  I started to get to my knees as they attacked him, same guy told the other one.  “Take it! Take it!”  Must’ve been talking about the guns.  I saw Glenn on the ground as I grabbed my bow, the guy with the bat hit him that pissed me off.  I aimed and shot the guy who’d been speaking in the ass.  He grabbed for the arrow screaming and holding onto his friend.

I heard a car coming as I took aim after loading, the guy with the bat had grabbed Glenn from behind holding him as they backed up.  “Get off me! Get off me!”  Glenn screamed as he struggled against the guy.  I couldn’t shoot without the risk of hurting Glenn; I wasn’t going to do that.  The part about this day I will never forget was how I felt when Glenn started screaming my name.  “Daryl! Daryl! Daryl!”  I used my bow to stand.  I had to get to Glenn; I couldn’t let them take him.  But I was too late, I felt helpless and useless just watching them take him.

They got him in the car and sped off as I ran to fence; I watched the car disappear as walkers were coming at me.  I still screamed at them though.  “Come back here, you sumbitches!”  But the walkers were trying to get at me I closed the gate pulling it with me as I backed up.  They had Glenn I turned and saw the boy up at one of the dumpsters and my anger at loosing not just my brother but a guy I was starting to have feelings for rose up.

Rick and T-Dog were running from the other end of the alley as I ran at the boy pushing him with all my anger.  I wanted a go at him, beat him up but before I got the chance Rick stopped me.  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop it.”  He sad as he grabbed me.

He was pushing me back as I was fighting to get loose yelling at the kid.  “I’m gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!  Let me go.”  I ordered Rick.

“Chill out.”  Rick said.

“They took Glenn.”  I told him, Rick looked at the kid then.  T-Dog was holding the boy against one of the walls as Rick was trying to calm me down.  “That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends.”  I continued to yell pointing at him.  I was so pissed, I realized I was more pissed at Glenn being taken then I truly had been when I found Merle’s hand on the roof not more than an hour ago.  “I’m gonna stomp your ass!”  That time I yelled at the boy.

“Guys! Guys! We’re cut off!”   T-Dog told us.

“Get to the lab, go.”  Rick ordered pointing to T-Dog.  He grabbed the boy and headed back to the building we’d come from.  Rick let go of me then so he could grab the bag of guns that got left when they took Glenn.

“Come on, damn it, let’s go.”  I said grabbing my bow.  He picked up his sheriff’s hat that Glenn must’ve also dropped.  He started to run back down the alley, I was right behind him the whole way.  We didn’t stop until we got safely inside, then after a breather headed to the office where we’d made our plans.  T-Dog was in there with the boy, he had him sitting in one of the office chairs.

Rick walked up to him after a few minutes leaning against one of desks in front of the kid and asked.  “Those men you were with, we need to know where they went.”

“I ain’t telling you nothing.”  He informed us.  I’d calmed down but if this kid didn’t tell us where they took Glenn I was gonna kick his ass.

“Jesus, man.  What the hell happened back there?” T-Dog asked me.

“I told you, this little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me.”  I said, T-Dog was leaning with his hands on the same desk that Rick was against I couldn’t stay still I had to keep moving burn off this frustration and anger.

“You’re the one who jumped me, puto screaming about trying to find his brother like it’s my damn fault.”  He said.

“They took Glenn, could have taken Merle too.”  I said making another pass behind the desk.

“Merle?  What kind of hick name is that?  I wouldn’t name my dog Merle.”  I went for him after that, Rick stopped me again, I kicked at him as Rick pulled me back.  He flinched that gave me some satisfaction.

“Damn it, Daryl, back off.”  Rick told me as he let go.

I went to Glenn’s backpack; he’d left it up here so he could get the guns.  I pulled out Merle’s wrapped up hand while I talked.  “Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?”  I asked unwrapping the rag.  I threw the hand in the kids lap.  Once he realized what it was he started screaming and jumping out of the chair trying to get away from it.

I walked to where he was on the floor; I grabbed his t-shirt putting my hand on his face as I spoke in a very threatening manner.  “Start with the feet this time.”  Rick grabbed me from behind and pushed me away again, but the kid was scared of me now, it was in his eyes.

Rick knelt in front of him as he said.  “The men you were with took our friend.  All we want to do is talk to them; see if we can work something out.”  He finally relented and told us where they were.

We settled just outside the compound, it was a wreck.  Rick shook a shot gun shell listening to the scatter bullets rattle inside.  He looked at T-Dog then.  “You sure you’re up for this?”  He asked.

“Yeah.”  He answered with a quick nod of his head.

“Okay.”  He loaded the shell into the gun.  We were staying behind a wall that had once been a building; we were watching the place through a broken window.  T-Dog had a sniper rifle, Rick the shot gun, I had my bow.  The kid was sitting as he watched us.  The bag of guns were at T-Dog’s feet.

T-Dog picked up the bag and headed to set up so he could keep watch and use that sniper if he needed to.  These were people not walkers, slightly different killing one of them.  Not in my book.  “One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass.  Just so you know.”  I warned the kid.

“G’s gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours.  Just so youknow.”  He smarted back to me.  G was there so called leader.

“G?”  Rick asked.

“Guillermo.  He’s the man here.”  He explained.

“Okay then.”  Rick said as he cocked the shot gun.  “Let’s go see Guillermo.”  I kicked the kid in the back end to get him moving as we headed around the wall we’d been hiding behind through that broken window.  There was a lot of wreckage from old buildings.  Just one left standing.

Rick had the kid go first I followed next to and slightly behind Rick on his right.  We both kept an eye out for anyone as we headed to the big red steel doors that kept us from Glenn, my stomach was in knots, but it wasn’t from anticipation or anger or any of the usual stuff.  It was from fear, except not fear for me but for Glenn, that’s when I knew.  Of course I was in complete denial of my true feelings for the Koran.

A black guy walked out to meet us.  He stopped and looked at the kid.  “You okay, little man?”  He asked.

“They’re gonna cut off my feet, carnal*.”  He said.  Just so you know, I hadn’t been bluffing.

“Cops do that?”  The man, clearly acting as a leader so I figured this had to be G, asked.

“Not him.”  He said; then turned pointing at me.  “This redneck puto here.”  He looked back at his friend.  “He cut off some dude’s hand man he showed it to me.”

“Shut up.”  I ordered.

The guy I shot in the butt came out then.  “Hey, that’s that vato right there, homes.”  He had a pistol pointed at me as he continued.  “He shot me in the ass with an arrow, what’s up, homes, huh?”  He asked, Guillermo placed his hand on the guys arm getting him to lower the gun.

“Chill, ese*, chill, chill.”  Guillermo said.  “This true?  He wants Miguelito’s feet?”  He asked.  “That’s pretty sick, man.”

Rick kept his shot gun at the kids back.  “We were hoping more for a calm discussion.”

“That hillbilly jumps Felipe’s little cousin, beats on him threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion?”  G asked.  “You fascinate me.”

“Heat of the moment.  Mistakes were made on both sides.”  Rick replied.

“Who’s that dude to you anyway?  You don’t look related.”  He looked at me then Rick.  You don’t have to be related to be family, that’s what he is to me now.  Then he was just a budding relationship that wouldn’t have gotten to this point without the catalyst that set all these chains in motion.

“He’s one of our group more or less.  I’m sure you have a few like him.”  Rick explained.

I inched forward.  “You got my brother in there?”  I asked.

“Sorry, we’re fresh out of white boys.  But I’ve got Asian, you interested?”  He asked.

“I have one of yours, you have one of mine.  Sounds like an even trade.”   Rick said.

“Don’t sound even to me.”

“G. Come on man” The kid sounded scared.  He’d moved some so my arrow was at his back instead of Rick’s shot gun.

“My people got attacked.”  G continued.  “Where’s the compensation for their pain and suffering?  More to the point, where’s my bag of guns?”  He asked.

“Guns?”  Rick asked.

“The bag Miguel saw in the street.  The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get.  That bag of guns.”

“You’re mistaken.”

“I don’t think so.”

“About it being yours.  It’s my bag of guns.”

“The bag was in the street.  Anybody could come around and say it was theirs.  I’m supposed to take your word?  What’s to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what’s mine?”  Felipe cocked his gun and aimed it again the rest behind them were getting ready for a fight as well.

“You could do that.”  He turned looking at where T-Dog waited with the sniper aimed. “Or not.”  Rick said as G noticed him.

“Oye*.”  G called out motioning upward.  We looked up then at the roof.  Two guys appeared with Glenn.  One of the guys was holding Glenn who had a bag over his head and his hands tied behind his back.  They took the bag off, he had duck tap on his mouth but it was clear he was scared; the look in his eyes was forever imprinted in my memory.  I was suddenly regretting not giving him the answer he wanted earlier.

They shook him before we looked back at G.  “I see two options.”  G spoke.  “You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks.  Or you come back locked and loaded; we’ll see which side spills more blood.”  He explained.  He took a glance at T-Dog before he turned and headed back inside with his boys.

Once the doors had closed we headed to a building that was still mostly standing to figure out our next move.  After clearing the walkers and finding a room to talk things over.  There were a couple of desks against each other and a black bored on the wall.  T-Dog leaned against it, while Rick put the bag of guns on one of the desks and started going through it checking the ammo and shit.  The kid sat on the floor his arm resting on a chair between him and T-Dog.  I was standing on the other side of the desks voicing how important those guns are.  “Them guns are worth more than gold.  Gold won’t protect your family or put food on the table.”  I explained.

So I asked wanting to know how much he was willing to do for Glenn, because truth was I had my bow it didn’t matter if we gave the guns away I wanted Glenn back, I just needed a feel of how loyal this man was going to be for the kid that saved his life.  “You willing to give that up for that kid?”

T-Dog spoke up then, before Rick gave an answer to my question.  “If I knew we’d get Glenn back, I might agree.  But you think that vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?”

“You calling G a liar?”  The kid said all smart mouthed.

“Are you a part of this?”  I asked.  I head slapped him as I continued to speak, anger clear in my voice.  “You want to hold onto your teeth?”  The kid shut up then so the grown-ups could talk.

“Question is do you trust that man’s word?”  T-Dog asked getting back on subject.

“No, question is what are you willing to bet on it?” I asked, I didn’t trust anyone at that time, not that G, not Rick, not the group, and I sure as hell didn’t trust Glenn due to my mixed feelings about him.  But that all changed in the coming weeks.  “Could be more than them guns, could be your life.  Glenn worth that to you?”  I asked rephrasing my previous question he hadn’t answered.

He gave the right answer when he finally spoke as he loaded and holstered his pistol.  “What life I have I owe to him.  I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank, he could have walked away, but he didn’t, neither will I.”  That’s Glenn, I was a stupid red neck, he never gave up on me and he never stopped to think about who he was helping just that he was helping someone.

“So you’re gonna hand the guns over?”  I asked.

“I didn’t say that.  There’s nothing keeping you two here.”  Motioning to me and T-Dog, he was wrong there, but like I said before it was none of Rick’s business.  “You should get out, head back to camp.”  He suggested.

“And tell your family what?”  T-Dog asked as he rubbed a hand over his bald head.  He looked at T-Dog; he had his answer from him.  Then he looked at me, our eyes met for a brief moment before I reached for the guns to help him out.  I was never good with words, still ain’t, but my actions always spoke for themselves.

He handed a shot gun to T-Dog; I took a shot gun for myself.  The kid spoke up then as he stood.  “Come on, this is nuts.”

I turned to him and put my finger against his stomach and pushed him back down to sit.  He had no say in what was about to happen.  As we loaded up the kid begged us.  “Just do like G says.”  He didn’t want a blood bath.  We loaded pistols and shot guns, found some tape and bound the kids hands behind his back, T-Dog found a towel I wrapped it tight around his mouth.  Then we headed back to G, and Glenn.  I took lead that time with my shot gun pressed at Miguel’s back.

T-Dog was at my right, Rick to my left, I pushed Miguel on, he groaned behind the makeshift gag as we approached the doors.  They opened them, I pushed the kid inside, following after; I grabbed him again to keep him moving forward.  Rick and T-Dog were right behind me.

We were out numbed, there were blacks and Mexicans I didn’t see Glenn, they had guns and pipes.  Rick had the bag on his back as well as his sheriffs’ hat on his head.  Rick stopped in front of Guillermo who spoke then.  “I see my guns but they’re not all in the bag.”

Rick had his gun leveled should he need it as he answered him.  “That’s because they’re not yours.  I thought I mentioned that.”

“Let’s just shoot these fools right now, ese, all right?  Unload on their asses, ese.”  Felipe said.

“I don’t think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.”  He told Rick.

Rick lowered his gun as he replied.   “No, I’m pretty clear.”  He took a knife cut the tape binding Miguel’s hands and let him go.  “You have your man.  I want mine.”  He told Guillermo as his boys grabbed Miguel.

“I’m gonna chop up your boy.  I’m gonna feed him to my dogs.  They’re the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw.”  He explained.  I was getting pissed again, I wanted Glenn back that was all there was to it.  And I’d kill all these asshole to get him, these were my thoughts as he continued to threaten Glenn’s life.  “I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale.”  Rick didn’t speak.

“I told you how it has to be are you woefully deaf?”  G asked.

“No, my hearings fine you said come locked and loaded.”  We cocked our guns they cocked theirs and grabbed whatever was heavy and handy.  We were pointing ready to fire as Rick said. “Okay then, we’re here.”  Before any of us could pull the trigger a new voice spoke up.  A woman calling for one of the guys.

 

“Felipe! Felipe!”  An elderly woman in a gown and bathrobe walked through the crowed to Felipe, I wondered if his ass still hurt.

“Abuela* go back with the others—now.”  Felipe told her.

“Get that old lady out of the line of fire!”  I warned my patients wearing thin.

She was white and wearing a cross I noticed as G spoke to her.  “Abuela listen to your mijo*, okay?  This is not the place for you right now.”

She spoke to Felipe.  “Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing, he needs his asthma stuff.  Carlito didn’t find it.  He needs his medicine.”  She explained.  Rick started to lower his gun.

Guillermo looked at Felipe.  “Felipe, go take care of it, okay?  And take your grandmother with you.”

Felipe turned and spoke in Spanish to his grandmother I didn’t understand a word of it.  She turned to us.  “Who are those men?”   She asked.  Rick had fully lowered his gun.  I followed suit as Felipe continued to speak Spanish to her.

“Don’t you take him.”  She said to Rick.

“Ma’am?”  Rick asked confused.

“Felipe’s a good boy.  He have his trouble but he pull himself together, we need him here.”  There was an accent in her voice as she spoke; I don’t think English was her first language.

“Ma’am, I’m not here to arrest your grandson.”

“Then what do you want him for?”  She asked.

“He’s…helping us find a missing person.”  Rick told her.  “A fella named Glenn.”

“The Asian boy?  He’s with Mr. Gilbert.  Come.  Come, I show you.”  She started to lead the way stating again to Felipe.  “He needs his medicine.”

“Let ‘em pass.”  Guillermo ordered his crew as we followed the little old lady.

She had taken ahold of Rick’s hand as we went outside the building and around to some stairs up those then around a corner and too a big back yard that had table and chairs and a fence with barbed wire at the top.

She walked to a door and went inside; we quickly realized that this place was an old folk’s home.  “Abuela, por favor*.  Take me to him.”  Felipe told his grandmother, they went on ahead.

As we passed people the old and young alike most taking care of the elders I noticed some things.  There were blisters and boils on some, and in one room I passed there was a man in bed coughing up blood and when he looked at me something in his eyes, a look like he knew me, it was the creepiest thing I’d ever seen.  We’d find more people like this, survivors who got the worst of what was happening to us.

We got to the dining area, I saw a woman who was wearing glasses, as I passed her she was cutting herself with a knife, but each cut heeled a second later.  For a second I thought I was seeing things, I never mentioned this to Rick.

There was a group of people around who I guess was Mr. Gilbert as Felipe was taking care of him, he was in the midst of an asthma attack.  Of all the things it made no sense why I could see at night, or Glenn could run and jump faster than humanly possible, or why Rick got to break chains with his bare hands, but this man didn’t get anything, he was just stuck with asthma even while the rest of us were cured or got sicker none of it made any sense, still doesn’t.

We noticed Glenn among them watching.  “Nice and easy, just breathe.”  I heard Felipe tell the old man as we walked up to them.  Mr. Gilbert was an older black man sitting in a wheel chair.

Rick looked at Glenn then.  “What the hell is this?”  It was nice to see Glenn alive and well not being tortured but I mean this place is not what we expected because of Guillermo’s attitude threatening Glenn’s life and he was just fine.

“An asthma attack.”  Glenn explained as he looked at us.  “Couldn’t get his breath all of a sudden.

T-Dog spoke my thoughts.  “I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man.”  Glenn looked at these three little dogs that couldn’t eat a fly much less a human on this cheetah spotted doggie bed.

One of the dogs barked as us, a high pitched slightly annoying bark.  Rick turned to Guillermo then.  “Could I have a word with you?”  They started to walk away I could still him though, it wasn’t hard, I didn’t even have to strain.  “You’re the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met.  We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you.” I watched there confrontation.

“Well, I’m glad it didn’t go down that way.”

“If it had, that blood would be on my hands.”

“Mine too, we’d have fought back.  Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to.  Protect the food, the medicine—what’s left of it.  These people the old ones—the staff took off just left ‘em here to die.”  Rick looked back at them.  “Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed.”

“What are you, doctors?”

“Felipe’s a nurse—a special care provider.  Me, I’m a custodian.”

“What’s wrong with some of them, the blisters and boils.”

“We don’t know, we can’t explain it, some happened before the dead, it got worse afterwards.  What’s going on with them, with my crew, but I’m not going to question it, just trying to survive.”

They stopped there talk and decided to discuss the rest in private.  So the four of us followed Guillermo to an office type area.  Where Rick set the bag of guns down.

“What about the rest of your crew?”  Rick asked picking up their previously dropped conversation.

“The vatos trickle in, to check on their parents their grandparents.  They see how things are and most decide to stay.  It’s a good thing too we need the muscle.”  Glenn walked to me as they continued talking and while T-Dog was watching them Glenn gave me a quick hug, surprisingly enough, I hugged him back.  “The people we’ve encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind—plunderers, the kind that take by force.”

“That’s not who we are.”   Rick told him.

“How was I to know?  My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage—appearances.”

“Guess the world changed.”  T-Dog said, he was sitting in a chair against the wall.

“No.” Guillermo told him.  “It’s the same as it ever was the weak get taken.  So we do what we can here.  The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city, but most can’t even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that’s just a dream.  Still it keeps the crew busy, and that’s worth something.”  He pauses, no one spoke.

He continued.  “So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance.  The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going.  We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait.  The people here, they all look to me now.  I don’t even know why.”  He shrugged at that statement.

Rick gave him an answer.  “Because they can.”  He looked at his shot gun, then turned and handed it over to Guillermo.  He reached out and took it from Rick.

Rick unzipped the bag and started to hand over more guns.  Once Rick had given them half he zipped up the bag placing it on his back, we said our goodbyes and good lucks and headed off to get back to camp before night.  We stopped at the lab to grab Dale’s tools and Glenn’s backpack then left the way we’d came to get back to the railroad.  It was a silent trip until.

“Admit it; you only came back to Atlanta for the hat.”  Glenn said talking to Rick.

“Don’t tell anybody.”

“You’ve given away half our guns and ammo.”  I said then as it had been weighing on my mind.

“Not nearly half.”

“For what?  Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow?  Seriously how long you think they got?  Most of them looked half dead already.”

“How long do any of us?”  He ignored my last comment.  We stopped walking as we noticed where our van had been parked it was no longer there.

“Oh my God.”  Glenn said.

“Where the hell’s our van?”  I asked.

“We left it right there.  Who would take it?”  Glenn asked.

“Merle.”  Rick stated.

“He’s gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp.”  I told him.

“Then we better hurry.”  We hustled out of the city and started back to camp.  There was nothing left to say at the moment.  On the way every once in a while Glenn would brush a hand against me the only way to communicate without T-Dog and Rick realizing our relationship.  We had to stop a couple of times either so Glenn could throw up, or pee I tell you that kid’s bladder and stomach were having some issues.

As the sun set we picked up our pace running, when the sun had gone down my eye sight improved.  I grabbed Glenn moving him to the side before he tripped over a rock in the road.  “What.”  Glenn asked.

“I didn’t want you tripping and slowing us down any more.”  I told him.

“How’d-“

“Wait.”  I said interrupting his question, we stopped, they looked at me confused.  “Walkers in the woods I hear them stumbling around.”  I told them. 

Rick looked at T-Dog and Glenn they shook their heads.  “We don’t hear anything Daryl.”  He told me.

Suddenly I heard screaming.  “Camp, run!”  I shouted at them.   From the tone in my voice Rick knew I was serious as we started to run full out taking up our guns as we went.

More screaming joined the first, I heard Carl calling for his mom.  “Lori, get him down!”  Shane shouted then shot gun blasts were going off.  “Hurry.”  I told Rick.

“Oh my God.”  Rick said as finally the rest could hear the gun firing.  I heard Andrea screaming and saying oh God no.  I knew then what had happened.  I never told them that I’d met their parents.  That because of Merle I let their father go on a helicopter with a bit pilot.  But he’d told me they were headed to Atlanta to find their daughters Andrea and Amy; then meeting them here, I couldn’t tell them the truth, so I’d pretended that I had no idea who they were.  Let them keep hoping and thinking that their parents might be safe in Florida; the truth would’ve been too painful.

We finally made it to camp, shooting every walker we saw, I kept looking at Glenn after shooting a walker in the head, I couldn’t let him get bit.  What had started as just a thought then has now become instinct to protect him, I don’t even think about it, I just do it.

Rick started calling for his family.  “Baby!  Carl!”  I used the butt of my shot gun to bash a walkers skull in.  “Baby!”  Rick screamed again.

“Dad!”  I heard Carl cry.

“Carl.”  I glanced over and saw him embrace his son as the last of the walkers were downed.  He was crying with his wife and son as he hugged her as well.

We were just walking around, I noticed Glenn; he was panting and looked like he was headed for a panic attack.  I was a cowered I didn’t do what I should’ve done what I wanted to do which was hold him just like Rick was doing with his family.  But to many witnesses is what I told myself, I was chicken shit back then, I know it, I’m ashamed of it, but I’m not going to hide it.

I saw Andrea with Amy as she talked to her; then watched the light go out of her eyes as she died.  I actually felt sad for her, I lost my brother, I knew he was alive, it was worst for her.  She lost her sister, and she saw her die.  She started to cry calling her name over and over.

Jim suddenly said.  “I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes.”  We had no idea that what he dreamt would come to pass, as he explained of the attack, of a farm, and more.  It stuck with me even now, the horror that he’d seen, that we would experience, if only we’d listened a little closer, none of what happened might’ve happened at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 Ayudame-help, 2 Vato- Dude, 3 Puto-Fag or coward  
> 4 Carnal-Brother, 5 Ese-Homeboy, 6 Oye-Hey  
> 7 Abuela-Grandmother, 8 Mijo-Son or grandson, 9 Por favor-Please


	5. Wildfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story doesn't have an editor so all grammar and spelling mistakes are my own.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm not making money off these charcters, I'm just having fun with them.

Wildfire

Rick's POV

 

Early dawn the next morning after the attack on our camp I walked to a hill and sat down, looking at the buildings of Atlanta I picked up my walkie-talkie and tried to reach Morgan like I said I’d do.

“Morgan, I don’t know if you’re out there, I don’t know if you can hear me.  Maybe you’re listening right now, I hope so, I found others—my family, if you can believe it.”  I waited, there was just static, I continued.  “My wife and son, they’re alive.  I wanted you to know that…there’s something else you need to know, Atlanta isn’t what we thought.  It’s not what they promised the city—do not enter the city.  It belongs to the dead now.

We’re camped a few miles northwest; up by a big abandoned rock quarry you can see it on a map.  I hope you come find us but be careful.  Last night walkers came out of the woods, we lost people.  Watch yourself, Morgan take care of your boy, I’ll try you again tomorrow at dawn.”  Nothing but static on the other end, I wasn’t sure I ever made it through with all my calls, but it didn’t stop me from trying, for weeks I tried, then I just gave up.

I waited a few more minutes then stood and walked back to camp where Daryl and the others were taking care of the dead, we’d started a pyre last night so the walkers remains were being burned, our people were being put in a different pile so they could be buried.  I walked up to Dale as I looked at Andrea where she had still been sitting since last night, just holding Amy’s hand.

“She still won’t move?”  I asked.

Dale just shook his head.  “She won’t even talk to us.”  Lori said her and Carol were sitting on what had once been a car bench seat, it was now just a bench seat.  “She’s been there all night.”  Lori looked in my direction before looking back at Andrea.  “What do we do?”  She asked.

“Can’t just leave Amy like that.”  Shane said who was sitting on a log with his shot gun on his shoulder, his arms on his knees.  “We need to deal with it same as the others.”

“I’ll tell her how it is.”  I said before walking to Andrea.  I was starting to get on my knees as I spoke.  “Andrea-” She cut me off with her pistol in my face, she cocked it.  I moved my hands in a non-threatening manner.

“I know how the safety works.”  I was regretting teaching her how to use it.

“All right, okay.”  I said as I backed off slowly.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”  I continued repeating until she put her pistol away and went back to staring at her sister.  There was nothing more any of us could do for her.

I walked back to the group; Daryl had joined us by then, his pick axe all bloody, Lori was standing next to him.  “Y’all can’t be serious.  Let that girl hamstring us?  The dead girls a time bomb.”  Daryl told us.

“What do you suggest?”  I asked him.

“Take the shot, clean in the brain from here.  Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance.”  Daryl suggested, I understood where he was coming from, but I couldn’t do that, Andrea would never forgive us, forgive me.

“No, for God’s sakes, let her be.”  Lori told him before sitting back down.  Shane and I made eye contact he shrugged, it was clear he was fine with that for now.  I looked back at Daryl; I could see Glenn behind him working on moving more bodies.  Daryl scoffed as he walked away from us, it was clear he didn’t agree with doing nothing.

Daryl went to Morales and started helping him to pull a dead boy to the pyre when Glenn stopped him.  I heard Glenn yell at Daryl and Morales as I watched from where I’d been standing.  They took a dead boy to the pile to be buried instead.

“You reap what you sow.” Daryl yelled at Glenn before he dropped the boy with the rest of our people. 

“You know what?  Shut up, man.”  Morales told him.

He walked away as he looked at us and screamed.  “Y’all left my brother for dead.  You had this coming.”  He pointed at us.  I wasn’t going to deny that he might’ve been right.

Jim and Jacqui were about to move one of the bodies when she suddenly started yelling for us.

“A walker got him.”  She walked away from him.  “A walker bit Jim.”  Shane stood up then and the rest of us surrounded Jim.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” He said.

“Show it to us.”  Daryl ordered as he pointed at Jim with his free hand his other hand holding the pickaxe on his shoulder.  Daryl moved the pickaxe holding it with both hands as he ordered again.  “Show it to us.”  Jim turned and picked up a shovel, prepared to fight.

“Easy, Jim.”  Shane said.

“Grab him.”  Daryl said.

“Jim, put it down, put it down.”  I said.  More voices joined as people were getting panicked at the idea of Jim being infected.  T-Dog grabbed him from behind under his arms making Jim drop the shovel as he kept repeating ‘I’m okay.’ Over and over again.

Daryl ran up to him and lifted his shirt showing a fresh nasty walker bite on his left side.  T-Dog let him go, he was still saying he was okay, but we all knew he wasn’t.  He started breathing heavily, but it was clear in everyone’s eyes, he was going to die.  There was no stopping it; it was just a matter of time.

After everything calmed down Dale went up to Jim and led him to the front of the R.V and had him sit on a stump and wait.  Then the rest of us: Daryl, Carol, Jacqui, Shane, Lori, Dale, Morales, and T-Dog got in a circle to discuss what to do, Glenn had gone into the woods, something about empting his stomach.

“I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl’s and be done with it.”  Daryl suggested.  I looked at where Andrea was still sitting unmoving from her sister’s side.

Shane lifted his head and looked at Daryl.  “Is that what you’d want if it were you?”  He asked.

“Yeah, and I’d thank you while you did it.”  Daryl told him.

“I hate to say it—I never thought I would—but maybe Daryl’s right.”  Dale said which surprised me, but I didn’t want to agree with Daryl, back then I didn’t.  Now I agree with him a whole lot more.

“Jim’s not a monster Dale, or some, rabid dog.”  I said.

“I’m not suggesting—”   Dale started.

“He’s sick, a sick man.”  I interrupted.  I was naïve and stupid back then, I know better now.  “We start down that road where do we draw the line?”  I asked the group.

“The line’s pretty clear.  Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be.”  Daryl said.

“What if we can get him help?  I heard the C.D.C was working on a cure.”  I suggested.

“I heard that too.  I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell.”  Shane said.

“What if the C.D.C is still up and running?”

“Man, that is a stretch right there.”

“Why?”

“If there’s any government left, any structure at all, they’d protect the C.D.C at all costs wouldn’t they?”  I asked putting my hands on my hips.  “I think it’s our best shot, shelter, protection, rescue—”

“Okay, Rick, you want those things all right?  I do too, okay?  Now if they exist they’re at the army base.  Fort Benning.”  Shane suggested.

“That’s a hundred miles in the opposite direction.”  Lori said.

“That is right.”  Shane continued.  “But it’s away from the hot zone.  Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it’ll be heavily armed; we’d be safe there.”

“The Military were on the front lines of this thing.  They got overrun, we’ve all _seen_ that.  The C.D.C is our best choice and Jim’s only chance.”  Daryl looked back at Jim; then turned to me.

“You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. “  He lifted his pickaxe again and started to run at Jim as he raised his voice.  “Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!”  He stopped before swinging down on Jim as I’d cocked my pistol and had it at his head again.

“Hey, hey, hey!”  I yell at him to get his attention, once I got it I stated as Shane walked in front of him.  “We don’t kill the living.”  He looked at me, there was something in his eyes, anger, but I saw fear to.  Up till then Daryl’s never showed much fear for himself, since Merle wasn’t there, there had to be someone else in this group he was trying to protect.

He lowered his axe.  “That’s funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head.”

“We may disagree on some things, not on this, you put it down.   Go on.”  Shane told him.  Daryl took the handle of the axe and brought the head down into the ground and left it there before walking away.

Shane picked it up as I moved to Jim; I bent down and placed my hand on his shoulder.  “You come with me.”  I told him.

“Where are you taking me?”  He asked as he stood, I put one hand at his back and the other on his wrist as I led him away.

“Somewhere safe.”  I took Jim inside the R.V. and told him to just sit on the couch, or lie down and just rest.  I walked outside and went to Shane; we were talking when he motioned to Andrea.  I turned and saw that Amy had come alive; Carol and Dale who were sitting on the bench seat noticed her as well.

It appeared that Amy was trying to bite Andrea who wouldn’t get away from her.  Shane and I headed toward them pulling are pistols from our holsters as we went.  We stopped as she shot Amy, there was nothing we could say, or do to make her lose any better; all we could do was watch.  The more I saw of this new world I’d woken up to the more numb my emotions became, until I didn’t even care if we killed the living just so my group could survive.

It was a couple of hours after that, Shane and I were on the hill that Jim had been digging on yesterday, from what I’d been told that is.  When I said.  “Say it.”  I knew there was something on his mind, I’d always been able to read him like a book; I wish I hadn’t been so blind.

He paused in his digging and looked at me.  “Okay.  I’m thinking if you’d of stayed here, if you’d have looked after your own—instead you went off.  You took half our manpower with you.  I’m thinking maybe our losses wouldn’t have been so bad.”

“If we hadn’t gone off and brought those guns back when we did I think our losses would have been a lot worse.”  I told him.  “ _Maybe_ the entire camp.”  I stopped as a truck approached, Shane and I got back to work as Daryl parked and got out, he walked to us, leaving the bodies that had been wrapped up and placed in the bed of the truck.

He situated the bandage on his hand.  Last night Lori had bandaged Daryl’s hand properly, we explained what had happened, telling them it was just adrenalin that made me strong enough to break those chains.  I knew it was bullshit but I didn’t know any other way of explaining it.

“I still think it’s a mistake not burning these bodies.”  Daryl said as he stopped in front of me.  “It’s what we said we’d do, right?  Burn ‘em all, wasn’t that the idea?”  He asked as I saw the rest of what was left of our camp walking up to pay their respects to their friends and family.

“At first.”  Shane said.

“The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it’s not the thing to do, we just follow him along?”  Daryl asked, it didn’t sound like an insult when Daryl called him Chinaman, later on it’ll become an endearment, it becomes Daryl’s way of saying sweetheart or baby without having to say those things, because sweetheart and baby just isn’t Daryl’s style.

Daryl continued as Shane and I weren’t answering his question.  “These people need to know who the hell’s in charge here, what the rules are.”

“There are no rules.”  I told him as I looked him in the eyes.

“Well, that’s a problem.”  Lori said as the rest of our group was close enough to hear what we were saying.  “We haven’t had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves.  We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead.  It’s what people do.”  Lori explained.

After everyone else was buried we just had Amy left, Andrea insisted on burying her without any assistance.  So we stood off to the side and watched, Glenn stood near Daryl and I stood with my wife and son, Dale was with Andrea at Amy’s feet he wanted to help her.

Andrea was crying as she dragged her and stumbled some as she got into the hole.  Dale bent to help but Andrea stopped him.  “I can do it, I can do it.”  She started to lower Amy into the hole.  She repeated a few more times that should could do it.  But when she didn’t stop him again he lefted Amy’s feet just slightly to get them into the hole.

She moved to the side cradling Amy’s head as she slowly lowered her down to the ground.  Lori started crying then as she looked away to get composure then lifted her head to show Andrea that we’re all here for her.

Dale gave Andrea his hand to help her out of the hole, she accepted the help.  “Hey.”  He said as he put his other hand on her arm.  She was panting and breathing heavy.  Shane and I picked up our shovels and buried her, once we all said our goodbyes to friends and loved ones we headed back down the hill.

I brought up the rear, with Lori and Carl right in front of me.  Lori had one hand in Carl’s she reached back with her other and took mine.  “Burying other people is bad enough, but the thought of one of us—” I started to whisper to Lori.

“Shh.”  She interrupted as she stopped.

“Are we safe now, dad?”  Carl asked I knelt down in front of him.  “Now that we’re together?”

“I won’t leave again.  I promise you that not for anything.”  I promised, I wish I hadn’t, it was one promise to him I was never able to keep.  He had tears in his eyes as I continued after placing my hand on his neck rubbing my thumb on his cheek.  “Now give me a chance to discuss some things with your mom, okay?  Yeah.”  He nodded.  “All right.”  I let him go and head to the rest of the group.

I stood back up and took Lori’s hand intertwining our fingers as we made a slow stroll down the hill.  “Shane blames me for not being here.”  I told her.  Then I stopped her and turned face to face.  “Do you?”   I asked.

She couldn’t answer me but it was written all over her face and lack of voice was evidence enough.  “We got guns now.  We’re stronger.”  I told her.

“And we have fewer people.  That makes us weaker.”  She told me.  “You want me to say I think you were right?  I understand that.”  She looked away for a second before continuing.  “All I can say is that neither one of you is entirely wrong.  It’s the best I can do right now.”

I’d wanted an honest answer, and when I got it, I didn’t like it.  It didn’t stop me asking my next question.  “What about the C.D.C.?” 

“Rick—”

“We’re at the ragged edge here.  We need relief and we got a sick man who needs help.  I don’t know why people can’t see that.”  I explained.

“Well, look at their faces.  Look at mine we’re all terrified.  If one of us suggested, based on a hunch that we head toward that city, you’d have no part of it.”  I looked at her with disbelief.  “Tell me something with certainty.”  She begged of me.

I looked around thinking; then I looked at her with affection.  “I love you.”  She got teary eyed as I continued.  “That’s all I got.”

She shrugged her shoulders and replied.  “I love you too.”  I hugged her.  We got back to camp and headed for the R.V where I’d told Jim to stay.  I walked in with Lori behind me, I knocked lightly on the wall, letting our presence be known.

Carol had gotten there first; she’d brought a pot to him in case he got sick.  It was sitting on the table between the built in couches, she was washing the sweat from Jim’s face with a rag.  I stopped in front of her, she turned to me.  “His fever is worse.”  She informed me.

Lori leaned against the wall as she looked at Jim.  “You need anything?”  She asked.

“Uh…Water, could use more water.”  His words were a little slurred.

“I’ll get some.”

“Okay.”

“Carol, you help me?”  Lori asked as she took Carol’s hand and left to get him the water.  I sat on the opposite couch.

“You save a grave for me?”  He asked.

“Nobody wants that.”  I told him.

“It’s not about what you want.  That, uh—that sound you hear, that’s God laughing while you make plans.”  He explained.

“What I want, Jim, if—if God allows, is to get you some help.” He started coughing, I picked up the pot and handed it to him, he grabbed it and bent his face toward it should he throw up.  He coughed some more and spit in it, he did that for a few more minutes, I noticed the spit had blood mixed with his saliva, he was dying and we both knew it.

Once he was under control he sat back against the wall and inhaled deeply calming down from his coughing fit.  All I could do was watch; I felt helpless.

“Watch the mangroves.  Their roots will gouge the whole boat.  You know that, right?”  He asked.  He continued talking.  “Amy is there swimming.  You’ll watch the boat, right?  You said you would.” I looked at him, he was delusional.

“I’ll watch the boat, don’t worry.”  I promised as I scratched the spot next to my eye as I realized there was nothing I could do for him, and his time was runing out.

“Okay.”  He looked out the window as I moved my hand over my eyes closing them briefly then rested my hand over my mouth.  I was upset, depressed most defiantly; I’m sure he could see it in my eyes.

I stayed with him several minutes after Lori had brought him his water; I heard voices outside so I stood up and left Jim to sleep.  As I got closer I could make out what was being said.

“I guess I’ll just add it to the list of habits that I’m breaking.  Weather I like it or not.”  It was Shane speaking.  I came out then, Shane looked at me.

“What habits?”  I asked as I walked off the R.V. steps and stopped in front of him.  I looked at Lori as he spoke.

“Just talking about my need for a plan, man.”  I looked back at him as he continued.  “So what is it?  Are we leaving or not?  Maybe y’all just want to stay here.  We could hang some more tin cans.”  Shane suggested.  Right ‘cause the can’s worked out so well last night I thought.

“We can’t stay here we both know that.”

“I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut.”  Lori said supporting my decision, for a couple of minutes there was nothing but silence between us as we looked at each other.  Dale walked up and waited for us to finish our conversation.

“Let’s go do our sweep.”  Shane finally said.

 Shane, Dale and I walked off to do just that, leaving Lori to care for Jim.  We split up, Dale went one way, Shane and I went the other.  For a while it was nothing but silence between us.

“Tell you what, man, these people, man they’re not convinced.  You know?”  Shane told me.  “You head to the C.D.C.; you might be on your own.”  He warned me.  He turned around watching our backs; he continued speaking as he walked backwards.  “You gotta really consider whether you want to put Lori and Carl in that kind of spot.”

“I got to do what’s best for my family.”

“Best for your family?  What’s that?  Exposing them to all kinds of risks?”  He was facing me again.  “As opposed to what?  Crossing a hundred miles of hostile territory?  If we’re looking for a lifeline I say swim toward the closest ship, not further out to sea.”

“Why can’t you back me up?”  We headed further into the woods.

“Look, I want to.  It’s just…I don’t see it.”

“If it was your family, you’d feel differently.”  I had no idea the impact of my words on him would be, I was so blind to everything, nothing about anything except the here and now and how to live to see tomorrow.

He stopped, I looked back at him.  “What did you say to me?”  He asked as he got in my face; there was disbelief in his voice and eyes.  “I kept ‘em safe, man.”  He was pointing to himself.  “I looked after them like they were my own.  That’s what I did.”

I put my hand out there trying to placate him as I said.  “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Well, how’d you mean it?”  He asked, still angry.  I looked away not speaking.  “Go on man how’d you mean it?” I sighed throwing my hand in the air.

“You’re misinterpreting me.  You’re just hearing it wrong.”

“Yeah?”

“Look, you know—you know I can never repay that debt.”

“Okay.”  He seemed better, calmer; we became alert as we heard branches snapping.

We split up as we leveled our shot guns.  I went off to the right while he took left, for several minutes I didn’t see anything then I heard Shane and turned in his direction.

“Come on, man.”  I headed back to camp, on the way Shane and Dale both caught up to me.  We got to camp, I saw Andrea sleeping which was a good sight; she needed the rest.  Most were just standing or sitting waiting until we knew for sure what our next move would be.

As we got there Shane stepped in the middle of camp where the rest of our group was.  “I’ve been, uh—I’ve been thinking about Rick’s plan.”  Shane started as I knelt on the ground next to Lori who was sitting on the bench seat with Carol.  Glenn and Daryl were next to them, Morales family was on the other side of the camp fire, Carl on my other side Dale standing off to the side and Andrea asleep on one of the lawn chairs.

“Now look, there are no—there are no guarantees either way.  I’ll be the first one to admit that.”  He looked at me.  “I’ve known this man a long time.  I trust his instincts.  I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together.  So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning.  Okay?”

We ate what we could get mostly squeals from Daryl, the rest of the day was mostly in silence as we made plans.  The girls took shifts caring for Jim.  Everyone got washed up and in fresh clothes before heading to their separate tents.  As morning came I wrote a note and found a map taping it to the red sports car before going to the hill to make my call to Morgan.

I crouched down resting my arms on my legs as I spoke into the walkie-talkie.  “We’re moving out, leaving the quarry.”  It just squawked in response.  “If you heard me yesterday you may be coming here.  If you are we’ll be gone by the time you arrive.  I’m leaving a note and map behind for you taped to a red car so you can follow our trail.  We’re heading to the C.D.C. if there’s anything left, it’s got to be there, don’t you think?”

“Morgan…I hope you were right about that place.  I need you to be.”  I turned off the walkie-talkie and stood up as I headed back to camp.

Everything had been packed and the cars loaded when I got there.  Andrea and T-Dog were leaning against one of the vans, Lori and Carl were on a truck, Carol had her arm around Sophia, Jacqui was leaning on that same truck, Morales’ family was standing next to them, Glenn was between Morales and Dale and Daryl was between Dale and Shane, Daryl had his arms crossed.  I had walked next to Shane with my hat in my hands; he glanced at me before he spoke.

“Everybody listen up.  Those of you with C.B.s, we’re gonna be on channel forty.  Let’s keep the chatter down, okay?  Now you got a problem don’t have a C.B., can’t get a signal or anything at all you’re gonna hit your horn one time, that’ll stop the caravan.  Any questions?”

“We’re, uh…we’re—we’re not going.”  Morales told us.

“We have family in Birmingham.  We want to be with our people.”  Miranda said she was Morales’ wife.

“You go on your own; you won’t have anyone to watch your back.”  Shane informed them.

“We’ll take the chance.  I got to do what’s best for my family.”  Morales told us.

“You sure?”

“We talked about it, we’re sure.”

“All right, Shane.”  I knelt down at the gun bag.

“Yeah, all right.”  Shane said as he followed suit, and we discussed which gun to give Morales to make his trip a little safer.

“.357?”  I asked.

“All right.”  Shane agreed with my choice as he grabbed a box of ammo.

I glanced up before standing and saw Daryl biting his right thumb nail, that’s when I noticed he had a small black five pointed star on his hand.  I walked in front of Morales and held out the gun, he took it.  Shane handed him the box.  “Box is half full.”  I heard Daryl huff, that was his thoughts on letting them go.  Carl had tears in his eyes; Lori got off the car and walked up to Miranda.

“Thank you all…for everything.”  Miranda said.

“Come here.”  Lori said as she hugged her.

“Good luck, man.”  Shane said as he shook Morales hand.

“Appreciate it.”  Morales said as Lori was kissing the tops of his kids’ heads.

“Yeah.”  Shane said as Morales’ daughter Eliza hugged Sophia.

“Bye.”  Sophia said.

“Thank you.”  Miranda said as she hugged Jacqui.

“Bye.”  Eliza said as she handed a doll with brown pigtails and pink dress to Sophia.

I leaned close to Morales.  “Channel forty, if you change your minds.  All right?”

“Yeah, I know.”  They walked away.

Carol hugged Sophia as she cried.  “What makes you think our odds are any better?”  Shane asked me.  “Come on, let’s go.  Let’s move out.”  We got in our respective vehicles and headed out for the C.D.C.  That was the last time we ever saw Morales and his family, I sometimes wonder if they made out better than we did, or if they’re all dead, one way or another by now.

Glenn got in the R.V with Dale and Jim.  Dale took the wheel and lead us out of the camp site, Jacqui was riding with them too so she could care for Jim.  Morales and his family headed in the opposite direction, after what happened with our group I don’t regret letting them leave.

I drove right behind the R.V in our caravan line, with my wife in the passenger seat and Carl in the back, to cut down on cars and gas Carol and her daughter Sophia rode with us, Sophia sat next to Carl, Carol took the window seat next to her.  Shane was in his jeep with the bag of guns behind us.  T-Dog took the van; Andrea chose to ride with him.  Daryl was driving his truck with Merles bike tied down in the bed.

We drove for hours, past empty houses with lawns that got over grown, down highways without seeing another person; it was easy to forget that people were eating people.  Until reality showed it’s ugly face.  Dale got on the C.B and told us he had to stop his radiator hose was over heating.  So we pulled over to see what we could do to remedy this problem that was slowing us down and putting us in danger.

I got out of my car and walked to the front of the R.V, Dale was there, it was smoking and hissing.  I used my hat to try and clear some of the smoke coming from it but there wasn’t much we could do.

“I told you we’d never get far on that hose.  I said I needed the one from the cube van.”  Dale reminded me, that was why they needed the delivery truck but Merle had taken it.

“Can you jury rig it?”  I asked.

“That’s all it’s been so far, it’s more duct tape than hose, and I’m out of duct tape.”

The rest of the group had joined us by then, Andrea was behind me, T-Dog behind Dale.  Daryl and Glenn were also there, Daryl was pacing his crossbow at the ready, he clearly didn’t like being out in the open and vulnerable to attack, neither did I.

“I see something up ahead.”  Shane said as he looked through Dale’s binoculars after passing T-Dog who was holding Shane’s shot gun.  “A gas station if we’re lucky.”

Jacqui came out of the R.V in a hurry.  “Y’all, Jim—” She stopped in front of us.  “It’s bad.  I don’t think he can take anymore.”  She headed to where Lori and Carl were talking.

“Hey, Rick you want to hold down the fort?  I’ll drive ahead see what I can bring back.”  Shane suggested.

“Yeah, I’ll come along too and I’ll back you up.”  T-Dog told him.

“Y’all keep your eyes open now.  We’ll be right back.”  Shane said before they left.  I turned and went inside the R.V.  I walked back to where Jim was resting.

“We’ll be back on the road soon.”  I told him.

“Oh, no, Christ.  My bones—my bones are like glass.  Every little bump—this rides killing me.”  He explained how hard and painful this was for him.  “Leave me here.”  He said.  “I’m done.  Just leave me; I want to be with my family.”  I could see it in his eyes, he was tired of living, tired of trying to fight to survive, he just wanted to give in and quiet.

I knelt down next to him taking my hat off; I rested my arm on the edge of the seat as I leaned toward him.  “They’re all dead.  I don’t think you know what you’re asking.  The fever—you’ve been delirious more often than not.”

“I know.  Don’t you think I know?”  He asked as he pushed himself up to a better sitting position he groaned in pain and breathed through his teeth, once he stopped he looked at me and continued.  “I’m clear now, in five minutes I may not be.   Rick, I know what I’m asking, I want this, leave me here, now that’s on me.  Okay?  My decision…not your failure.”  I just didn’t or couldn’t see it that way; I left him to talk with the others.

Daryl and the rest were there as I walked outside the R.V. Shane and T-Dog got back shortly after with what we needed to fix the R.V.  I explained to them what Jim had said.  “It’s what he says he wants.”  I finished.

“And he’s lucid?”  Carol asked as she stood across from me next to Lori.

“He seems to be.  I would say yes.”

Dale spoke up next.  “Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood.  I would never go along with callously killing a man.  I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants.  And I think we have an answer.”

“We just leave him here?  We take off?”  Shane asked from his position next to me, he looked at the ground as he continued.  “Man, I’m not sure I could live with that.”

“It’s not your call, either one of you.”  Lori told us.

She was right, so Shane and I went into the R.V; we helped Jim up and got him outside as painlessly as possible then set him in a shadowed place against a tree.  “Yeah, that’s it.”  I said as I carefully laid his head down, he groaned from the pain.

“Hey, another damn tree.”  He said he was probably tired of only seeing trees for the past several weeks.

“Hey, Jim—I mean, you know it doesn’t need to be this.”  Shane told him.

“No.  It’s good, breeze feels nice.”  Shane sighed in exasperation, before he relented.

“Okay.  All right.”  Shane moved back and Jacqui took his place kneeling before him.

She spoke softly and gently.  “Just close your eyes sweetie.  Don’t fight.”  He closed his eyes. Then she kissed his cheek tears rolling down her cheeks as she moved away.

I knelt next to him.  “Jim, do you want this?”  I asked holding out a gun for him.

“No.  You’ll need it, I’m okay.”  I stood up then and Dale took my spot.  “Oh, hey.”  Jim was getting weak his voice softer like it was harder to speak.

“Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us.”

“Okay.”  His breathing was labored.  Glenn was teary eyed again; he just put his cap back on and left with Sophia and Carol, leaving only Daryl.  He just nodded his head as his way of saying goodbye as we all got in our vehicles and left him.

It was sunset by the time we made it; we all parked close to the side walk and started getting out.  It was bad, all the dead, just lying there, as far as the eye could see.  The military had put up a hell of a fight before they either all died or were forced to flee.  I was hoping for the latter.

The smell was worse, Glenn had to empty some bile from his stomach, whatever was left; he’d been throwing up a lot and not eating enough.  Some of use handled it better, but it was hard.  These days I don’t notice the smell as much.  We cocked our guns as we walked down the road, there were road signs and dead bodies keeping us from driving to the entrance, so we had no choice but to go on foot.

“All right everybody, keep moving.  Go on.”  Shane whispered as we tried to keep our voices low not wanting to alert any moving dead.  “Stay quiet, let’s go.”  Shane waited until everyone was ahead and took up the rear to watch our backs.  We used our shirts or bandannas or rags to cover our mouths and noses from the smell.

At one point Daryl motioned us to keep going as he stayed back with Glenn who was doubled over from stomach cramps as he was dry heaving.  I did notice Daryl’s concerned expression when it came to Glenn’s health at the time.  They caught up pretty quick after Glenn was finished.

There were groans and coughs as we got closer to the doors, they were just everywhere, on the lawn road in the Humvee we passed.  As we saw the sun starting to go down over the trees and horizon we picked up our pace.

Some saying come on and keep moving and hurry and telling them to stay quiet and keep low.  Daryl flung his crossbow on his back as Glenn started to have sever craps; he was holding his stomach as he doubled over almost losing his grip on his shotgun.  Daryl grabbed him and picked him up bridle style then rushed trying not to jostle him to much as we made it to the door.  Glenn was able to calm himself and relax a little which helped the cramping.  He kept a firm hold with his free hand on the shotgun as Daryl carried him.

The building was closed down; shutters were over where the entrance should’ve been.  I pushed against it and so did Shane, when he moved back I saw a bit of a dent in the metal, but just barely.

Shane knocked on the shutters as T-Dog said.  “There’s nobody here.”

“Then why are the shutters down?” I asked looking back at him.  This had to be a place of safety, if not here then where else could we to go, and now with Glenn, we needed inside.

“Walkers!”  Daryl yelled as he turned around Glenn aimed his shot gun, but didn’t shoot afraid to draw more to our position.

“Baby, come on.”  Lori cried as she grabbed Carl. 

Daryl shifted Glenn so he could drop his feet, Glenn was able to hang onto Daryl’s shoulders as he used his bow to shoot the walker.  Glenn got steady and then let Daryl go who turned to me.

“You led us into a graveyard!”  Daryl yelled Glenn got behind Daryl as he reasserted his hold on the shot gun.

“He made a call.”  Shane said.

“It was the wrong damn call!”  Daryl shouted as he came at me.  Shane got in front of me as he pushed him back.

“Just shut up.  You hear me?  Shut up.  Shut up!”  Shane yelled at him.  Glenn moved in front of Daryl.

Shane turned back to me.  “Rick, this is a dead end.”

“Where are we gonna go?”  Carol asked as she held Sophia close to her.

“Do you hear me?  No blame.”  Shane said.

“She’s right.  We can’t be here, this close to the city after dark.  Fort Benning, Rick—still an option.”  Shane told me.

“On what?  No food, no fuel that’s a hundred miles.”  Lori asked.

“A hundred and twenty-five I checked the map.”  Glenn corrected.  I needed to think, if they’d just be quite and let me concentrate, we needed in this building it had everything to survive.

“Forget Fort Benning we need answers _tonight, now._ ”  Lori said as she put her arm around Carl keeping him close, as he cried.

“We’ll, think of something.”  I told her.

“Come on, let’s go.”  Shane said as he tried to get me to come with them as they headed back for the cars.  “Let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s go, please.”  Lori begged.

I looked up and saw a camera above the shuttered doors move.  “All right, everybody back to the cars.”  Shane said.

“The camera—it moved.”  I told them.

“You imagined it.”  Dale said.

“It moved.”  I insisted.  “It moved.”

“Rick, it is dead, man.  It’s an automated device it’s gears, okay?  They’re just winding down now come on.”  Shane told me, then grabbed my arm and started to pull me away.  I was fighting him on this.  “Man, just listen to me.  Look around this place it’s dead, okay?  It’s dead; you need to let it go, Rick.”  Shane screamed at me as I got free and went for the shutters again.

I pounded on the shutters they shook and soon I saw dents form where my fists hit.  “Rick, there’s nobody here!”  Lori screamed at me.

“I know you’re in there.  I know you can hear me.” I looked at the camera.

“Everybody get back to the cars now!”  Shane shouted at them.

“Please we’re desperate.”  I continued to beg with the person inside.  “Please help us, we have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left, our friend is sick he needs medicine.”

Lori ran in front of me and grabbed my shirt.  “Rick.”  She was pushing at me as I was pounding on the doors.  “I’ll get in there, I’ll beat these doors down please help us.”  I begged as one of the doors started to splinter from the dents.  “If you don’t let us in, you’re killing us!”

Shane came up behind me, put his arm around my shoulder and chest and started pulling me away.  “Come on, buddy let’s go.”

“Please help us!”  Was my last ditch effort as they were shouting and starting to head for the cars before walkers showed up.  “You’re killing us!  You’re killing us!” I was fighting Shane’s hold, who fought to pull me away harder, I knew I’d end up with bruises in the morning, if we lived that long.

Shane finally managed to get me to turn around, he let me go and I was about to give up when I heard a click.  I turned as did the rest, the dented, splintered shutter opened as bright lights from inside spilled out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big revel about both the mutations and Glenn’s condition next chapter.


	6. TS-19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't own just having a lot of fun with them.
> 
> I don't have an editor so all mistakes are my own.

TS-19

Glenn's POV

 

We stood there for several minutes just looking at this bright light coming from the building, Daryl had lowered the shot gun, and he’d switched his bow for the gun since it takes more time to reload then to cock.  I was feeling better as the cramps had assaulted me on the way forcing Daryl to carry me had stopped.

The bright lights turned off and we moved to head inside, cautiously.  “Daryl, you cover the back.”  Shane said as Rick prepared his shotgun in case we got attacked, I was right behind him.

“Hello?”  Rick called; the place was huge, as I took in the wall of ceiling to floor windows with a break for the doors.  There were pillars and beams that kept the structure stable.  We moved further into what had to be the lobby as Rick called again.  “Hello?”

“Close those doors.”  Shane said.

“Watch for walkers.”  Dale told us.  We made a slow walk looking around at this place, it was like a fortress.

“Hello?”  Rick asked a third time, we heard a gun cock and immediately raised ours as he stood in the shadows.  He was holding what looked like a machine gun.

“Anybody infected?”  He asked loudly.

“One of our group was…he didn’t make it.”  Rick answered, the guy walked down a few stairs to converse with us without the screaming.

“Why are you here?  What do you want?”  He asked.

“A chance.”  Rick informed him.

“That’s asking an awful lot these days.”  He still had his gun pointed at us as he came into the light so we could see him better.

“I know.”  He looked around at us, Lori and Jacqui were breathing hard, Carol had her arms around Sophia and Dale was just standing there waiting.  The guys eyes traveled back and forth between us.

“You all submit to a blood test.”  He told us.  “That’s the price of admission.”

“We can do that.”  Rick assented.

He lowered his gun.  “You got stuff to bring in you do it now.”  He informed us then pointed at the doors.  “Once this door close it stays closed.”

We left to get our things, Rick and Shane volunteered to go, I volunteered and so did Daryl.  We headed out, pacing ourselves and watching out for walkers.  I was the first one there and I grabbed what I needed, and T-Dogs things I told him I would.  Daryl grabbed his and Jacqui’s and Dales things.  Rick and Shane grabbed their stuff Carl, Carol, Sophia and Lori’s stuff once it was all packed down to the bare essentials.  We ran back.  Dale and T-Dog stayed at the doors, and closed them once we were inside.

The guy who hadn’t given us his name yet used a security key card on a panel.  It beeped then he said.  “VI, seal the main entrance, kill the power up here.”  We watched as the dented and splintered up shutter came down sealing us off from the outside world.  My mind kept wondering how Rick did that to those metal shutters, questions for another time.

After the doors were sealed Rick walked up to him and introduced himself.  “Rick Grimes.”

“Dr. Edwin Jenner.”  They shook hands then he lead us to an elevator, we all piled on after grabbing what belonged to us, I stuck pretty close to Daryl, I don’t know why, but I felt connected to him, and safe with Daryl.

After a few minutes Daryl asked.  “Doctors, always go around packing heat like that?”  Speaking of Dr. Jenner’s machine gun.  He looked back at Daryl.

“There were plenty left lying around, I familiarized myself.  But you look harmless enough, except you.”  He said looking down at Carl, who looked back at him.  “I’ll have to keep my eye on you.”  He teased.  Carl smiled as Jenner chuckled.

The elevator stopped and we followed him off and down the halls.  “Are we underground?”  Carol asked as Jacqui adjusted her pack on her shoulder.

“Are you claustrophobic?”  Jenner asked.

“A little.”

“Try not to think about it.”  He led us to a darkened room. “VI, bring up the lights in the big room.”  A circle of lights suddenly turned on; there was the sound of humming and beeping as things became activated.  It was huge filled with desks and computers; there was one wall that was completely covered with a black screen.

“Welcome to zone five.”  He said before heading down a ramp into the room of computers.  We followed.

“Where is everybody?”  Rick asked.  “The other doctors the staff?”  He looked around at the empty room void of anything living.

Jenner stopped as he got stepped off the ramp onto the raised platform in the middle of the room right under the circle of lights, he faced us.  “I’m it…it’s just me here.”

“What about the person you were speaking with?  VI?”  Lori asked.

“VI, say hello to our guests.  Tell them…welcome.”  Jenner commanded.

Suddenly a computerized feminine voice filled the room. _“Hello, quests.  Welcome.”_

“I’m all that’s left.”  Jenner said.  “I’m sorry.”

Rick looked disappointed at this news, his hopes suddenly crushed.

Jenner then led us to what had been a conference room, was now just a room with a lot of chairs and a desk.  We sat down; Rick had me go first, after what happened outside and all the throwing up.  I sat as he pulled on blue latex gloves and tied off my arm to get a vain and started drawing the blood.

“I’m the one, the guy that’s sick.  Will this tell you what I got?” I asked.

“If you’re sick, it’ll tell me, if I have medicine for whatever it is I‘ll give it to you.  How long you been feeling sick?”

“A couple of days now, I’m not bit or scratched, I just have a stomach bug or something.”  I explained.

“I’ll give you some anti-nausea medication that should help.  I’ll give it to you in a shot it’ll work faster.”  He finished taking my blood, labeled it and put it on a tray; I stood up and sat in one of the chairs as the rest got their blood taken.  No one else spoke until Andrea.

“What’s the point?  If we were infected, we’d all be running a fever.”

“I’ve already broken every rule in the book letting you in here.  Let me just at least be thorough.  All finished.”  He informed her as the syringe clicked as he prepared another.

Andrea got up and swayed a little, Jacqui was there as she was next, she put her hands on Andrea to keep her steady.

“Are you okay?”  Jenner asked.

“She hasn’t eaten in days.  None of us have.”  Jacqui explained.

After all the blood samples were taken he picked up the tray.  “Glenn follow me, I’ll get that anti-nausea medicine then take y’all to the dining area.”  He turned and headed down the hall.

I followed him to a room where he placed the blood samples in a machine to test them.  He grabbed a shot and gave it to me, it went in my hip so a little painful but if it worked I didn’t care.

He led us to the dining area where he got out food and wine and we started to eat.  We were laughing and having a good time, for the first time we could eat and drink without worrying about anything, it was nice, and have as much as we wanted.  So I was not going to be hungry.

Dale was refilling Lori’s glass.  “Fine.”  She told him, he stopped.

“You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner.”  Dale told her as he gave the glass to her out reached hand.  “And in France.”  Lori was sitting next to Carl who was next to Rick eating.

Lori covered Carl’s glass as he looked at her.  “Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then.”  Lori said before taking a sip.

“What’s it gonna hurt?  Come on.”  Rick said.  She looked at him.  “Come on.”  He said again.  Dale laughed at that.  She just looked at him.  “What?”  We all started laughing as she relented.

Dale picked up Carl’s glass and put a little wine in it.  T-Dog had a big grin on his face, Daryl was on a counter behind T-Dog, not sitting at the table with the rest of us but still being a part of the group.

“There you are young lad.”  Dale said as he handed the glass back to Carl, who took a sip.

He put the glass down and made a face as he said.  “Ewww.”  We started laughing again.

Lori patted him on the back as she said.  “That’s my boy, that’s my boy.”

I hadn’t seen Jacqui and Carol laugh so hard in all the week’s I’ve known them, it was a great sight.  Carl shook his head trying to get rid of the taste.  Lori took what was left of the wine in his cup and put it in her glass.

“That tastes nasty.”  Carl said, Rick ruffled his hair.

“Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud.”  Shane suggested.

I hadn’t really been drinking much wine when Daryl said.  “Not you, Glenn.”

“What?” I asked as I looked at him.

Daryl grabbed a bottle of wine and poured a glass.  “Keep drinking, little man.  I want to see how red your face can get.”  We all laughed, it was funny he was actually teasing me in front of them he must’ve been getting a nice buzz going.  I drank though as he handed me a glass of wine to replace my empty one.

Rick stood up then and clinked his glass for us to quiet down, I’d walked to the counter and sat there as the rest drank and ate.  Jenner was off to the side not really joining us.

“It seems to me we haven’t thanked our host properly.”  Rick started.

“He is more than just our host.”  T-Dog continued as he raised his glass.  We all raised our glasses or in Daryl’s case bottle to that with calls of.  Hear, hear! Here’s to you doc, and booyah!

“Thank you, thank you, doctor.”  Rick said as he raised his glass.

Once things calmed and glasses stopped clinking and the noise lowered Shane asked.  “So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?”  He looked in Jenner’s direction.  “All the—the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?”  That put a damper on things.

“We’re celebrating, Shane.”  Rick told him.  “Don’t need to do this now.”

“Whoa, wait a second, this is why we’re here, right?  This was your move—supposed to find all the answers.”  Shane said as he clasped his hands together.  “Instead we—we found him.”  He pointed to Jenner with his thumb.  “Found one man.  Why?”

“Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families.  And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted.”  Jenner explained.

“Every last one?”  Shane didn’t seem to be buying Jenner’s explanation.

“No, many couldn’t face walking out the door.  They…opted out.  There was a rash of suicides.”  That started making us depressed so I took another glass of wine and drank it as he continued.  “That was a bad time.”

“You didn’t leave, why?”  Andrea asked.

“I just kept working, hoping to do some good.”

“Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man.”  I told Shane as I walked back to the table and sat down.  We finished eating, drinking a little more.  Daryl grabbed a bottle as we headed out following Jenner to where we could sleep.

“Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you’ll have to make do here.”  Jenner explained as he led us to a few rooms.  “The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like.  There’s a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy.”  He turned and bent down to Carl and Sophia’s level.  “Just don’t plug in the video games, okay?  Or anything that draws power.”  He looked at the rest us.  “The same applies—if you shower go easy on the hot water.”  Jenner moved off as I looked at the rest of the group behind me.

“Hot water?”  I asked, with this shit eating grin on my face.

“That’s what the man said.”  T-Dog who was standing next to me said we both started laughing; we started to split up as we found the showers, we had to take turns, as I entered one of the bathrooms with fresh clothes to wear Daryl was already there.  He was dressed still as he closed the door behind me.

I looked at Daryl as he followed me into the shower; he shucked his clothes after me and placed the bottle of wine on the ground out of the way.  He got in as the spray turned to a nice luck warm.  He wrapped his arm around me from behind as he kissed my neck.

He moved his hand to my chest as I leaned against him, he was getting hard as he grabbed the shampoo; he put some on his hand and started rubbing it through my hair.  I turned in his arms then so I could face him; he gripped my hair as I kissed him.

I took a bar soap and started to wash his body with it in my hands as he washed my hair.  I ran it over his chest, down his back, just slightly down his crack before he pulled me under the spray and I tilted my head back to wash the shampoo off.

We were both hard by then as he took the soap and started to rub my chest, paying close attention to my peaked nipples, I moaned, he kissed me then swallowing my noises.  He put the soap away and rubbed his soapy hands down my abdomen and grabbed my cock as I was half hard, a few strokes I was fully hard.

He turned me and pushed me against the wall I spread my legs obligingly to accommodate him as a soaped up finger entered me, I moaned and hissed at the initial sting.  He took his time as he prepared me, once he found my prostate I cried out as I grabbed a hand hold on the shower door.  He soaped up his cock as he lifted my leg with one hand.

I relaxed as he slid into me easily; I could tell he needed this as badly as I did.  Once fully seated he waited a minute for me to get use to him, once I gave him the go ahead he pulled almost all the way out, then slammed home hitting my prostate dead on.  I moaned and cried out in pure ecstasy, something I haven’t been able to do in so long, to scared walkers would find us but not this time.

I even heard Daryl moan and groan.  “Chinamen you are going to get pounded tonight.”  He whispered as he sped up, he kissed the side of my neck.  I begged for it, I begged for him to go faster and harder.  He gave me what we both needed.

It was several minutes before I couldn’t take any more and screamed out as I came with Daryl’s name on my lips.  He came seconds later, for the first time he screamed as well, he didn’t say my name, but as we stood there against each other getting our breathing back under control he whispered in my ear.  “I like you.”  He had slipped out of me, so I turned to look at him as he placed his hands on my hips.

“What?”  I asked.

“That’s what I was going to say, before T-Dog interrupted.  I was going to tell you, that I like you, and appreciate your kindness and understanding.”  I had tears in my eyes, it wasn’t an I love you, but it was the closest thing I was going to get at the time.  I kissed him long and deep, then we showered, dried off and got dressed, he grabbed the bottle and started drinking again as he acted as if it never happened.  I was fine with that, for now.

I went to one of the rooms and made up a pallet on the floor when Daryl showed up, he was drinking the wine, he shared some with me and asked.  “Can I sleep with you tonight?”  I grabbed another pillow and laid it down.  He got under the sheet and turned on his side; I got on my side and went to sleep.  In the middle of the night I woke and felt Daryl’s arm tighten around me, I turned to face him.  He was asleep probably had no idea he was holding me.

I kissed his cheek and cuddled into him for warmth, when I woke up the next morning I had my head on his chest and his arm around me.  He was starting to wake up, so I pulled away when he tightened his hold me.  “You don’t have to go.”  He told me.

“I know, but I need to pee.”  He released me then; I got up and went to the bathroom before going to eat breakfast.

Not everyone was up yet, I sat next to Dale and across from Carl and Lori, T-Dog was in the kitchen cooking as Jacqui stood next to me; Rick came in then.

“Morning.”  Rick groaned.

“Are you hung-over?”  Carl asked, Lori looked at him.  “Mom said you’d be.”

“Mom is right.”  Rick said as he sat down, he wasn’t the only one with a headache, I felt it when I woke up in Daryl’s arm, it was starting to get worse though.

“Mom has that annoying habit.”  Lori informed Rick.

“Eggs.  Powdered but—but I do ‘em good, I bet you can’t tell.”  T-Dog said as he came out.  My headache spiked, I groaned as T-Dog put some on my plate and Jacqui put her arm around my shoulders, I had my hand pressed against my head as I hunched over a fork in my fingers.  Dale chuckled.

“Protein helps the hangover.”  T-Dog informed me as I moaned again, I knew I had to eat, I was thankful for the shot I at least wasn’t throwing up.

“Where’d all this come from?”  Rick asked as he picked up the aspirin from the table.

“Jenner.”  Lori told him.  I’d already taken one for my headache, it hasn’t kicked in yet.

“Could you, help me, please?”  Rick asked as he handed the bottle to Lori, he’d tried and failed to open it.

“He thought we could use it.”  Lori continued to explain as she opened the lid.

“Thank you.”  Rick said.

“Some of us, at least.” Lori said looking at me.

“Don’t ever, ever, ever let me drink again.”  I begged as I groaned.

“Hey.”  Shane said as he joined us.

“Hey.”  Rick said.  Carol and Sophia were sitting down as T-Dog finished serving the eggs.  Shane went for the coffee on the counter.

“Feel as bad as I do?”  Rick asked as he took the aspirin.  T-Dog walked up to Shane as he poured a cup.

“Worse.”  Shane mumbled.

“The hell happened to you?  Your neck?”  T-Dog asked as he noticed a fresh scratch on the side of Shane’s face.

“Must’ve done it in my sleep.”  Shane said as he sat down.

“Never seen you do that before.”  Rick said.

“Me neither.  Not like me at all.”  He glanced at Lori; she glanced back before looking at her food again.

Jenner walked in then.  “Morning.”  He said.

“Hey, doc.”  Shane greeted.

Jenner stopped behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder.  “Glenn I need to see you when breakfast is over.”  I looked at him, he didn’t give an explanation, so I figured it had to do with my blood, I must have something bad.  He didn’t explain as he let go of my shoulder and walked to the coffee pot.

“Doctor, I don’t mean to slam you with questions firs thing—” Dale said.

“But you will anyway.”  Jenner said.

“We didn’t come here for the eggs.”  Andrea told him.

He turned to us.  “Finish breakfast, let me talk with Glenn, then meet me in the big room.   And I’ll answer all your questions.”  He told us, they accepted that.  After we finished I followed Jenner out of the dining area to another room.

There was a medical bed which Jenner pointed to.  “Have a seat Glenn.”  He closed the door behind us as I sat.  There was a machine looked like an ultra sound next to the bed.

“Take off your shirt and lay back please.”  Jenner requested.  I did as instructed, as I laid back I put my arm behind my head to cushion it.

“What’s wrong with me?”  I asked.

“Glenn you’re not sick.”  He said as he grabbed some gel and a towel, which he placed just under the band of my pants.  “I don’t want this gel on your jeans.”  He explained as he pulled my pants down until my abdomen was uncovered.

“This gels a little cold.”  He warned before squeezing some on my stomach, it was cold, made my muscles jump a little.  Then he took the ultra sound wand as he turned on the machine and once it was booted up he placed the wand on my stomach and moved it around.  He didn’t say anything as he moved it and pressed some buttons.  For several minutes it went like this then his hand stopped and he pressed more buttons before he took the wand away.

“Okay Glenn, you’re not sick.”

“Then why have I been throwing up, or getting dizzy, having stomach cramps.  These are not things a healthy person does.”  I told him as I sat up.

He pressed a button and whatever was on the screen printed.  He took it out and handed it to me.  I looked at it, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing but for a few minutes all I saw were shapes and shadows when suddenly I realized one of those shapes had a hand.  “What is this?”  I asked looking at him both confused and terrified.

“That is a fetus.”  I took school, classes on human development I knew what a fetus was, my mom got pregnant when I was twelve, she lost the baby but I learned things.  One of those things is that it’s impossible for me to be preg- I couldn’t even think it.

“Glenn you’re pregnant.”  I looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“No, no, no.  I’m a man I don’t get pregnant.”  I explained calmly to him.

“Come with me, I’ll explain everything to you and your group.”  He took the picture pressed a few buttons on the machine and turned it off.  I buttoned my shirt as I followed him out and joined the rest who were waiting in the big room for him, I was in shock let’s put it that way.

He walked to the platform and stopped at a computer; he pressed a button then talked to VI.  “Give me play back of TS-19. “  He commanded.

VI came alive as the wall of screen activated and her voice sounded.  _“Playback of TS-19.”_   He spoke as the screen loaded and a recording of a person’s head, the inside of someone’s skull came up.

“Few people ever got a chance to see this.  Very few.”  He explained as we stood there or leaned against the desk waiting for the answers to are questions, like how the hell did I get pregnant and if I am I just know Daryl’s gonna be pissed.  He’s the only one that could be the dad, seeing as he’s the only guy I’ve slept with in the past month, past several months, I hadn’t been sexually active before the dead started eating people.

“Is that a brain?”  Carl asked as it came up on the screen.

“An extraordinary one.  Not that it matters in the end.”  Jenner said.  “Take us in for E.I.V.”  Jenner commanded.

 _“Enhanced Internal View.”_   VI replied as the camera on the screen zoomed in so it was just the head and we could see how the brain’s synapses were firing.  We got a close up view of the person’s brain cells and nerves system; it looked like lighting was traveling one nerve and cell to the next then back again.

“What are those lights?”  Shane asked.

“It’s a person’s life—experiences, memoires, it’s everything.”  Jenner explained.

“Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you—” He pointed to us then continued.  “The thing that makes you unique, and human.”

“You don’t make sense ever?”  Daryl asked as he crossed his arms.

“Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages.  They determine everything a person says does or thinks form the moment of birth to the moment of death.”

“Death?  That’s what this is, a vigil?”  Rick asked.

“Yes.  Or rather the playback of the vigil.”

“This person died?  Who?”  Andrea asked.

“Test subject nineteen.  Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process.”  He looked at us, as we watched the vigil.  “VI, scan forward to the first event.”  Jenner commanded.

 _“Scanning to first event.”_   VI responded.  The recording backed out of the brain to the whole head, black showed up at the brain stem where before it had been bright blue.

“What is that?”   I asked.

“It invades the brain like meningitis.  The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs.”  He explained.  On the screen the black spread until the lights dimmed, then the person started to seize right before they stopped and the whole brain went dark.  “Then death.  Everything you ever were or ever will be…gone.”

“Is that what happened to Jim?”  Sophia asked her mom.

“Yes.”  Carol told her.

Some like Jacqui were crying for the loss, I myself cried a few tears, and I figured probably hormones.  This still didn’t answer all our questions, like me being pregnant.

“She lost somebody two days ago, her sister.”  Lori explained.  Andrea was teary eyed and trying not to cry again, Jenner walked up to her.

“I lost somebody too; I know how devastating it is.”  Jenner said, then straightened up and talked to VI again.  “Scan to the second event.”

 _“Scanning to second event.”_   Was VI’s response.

“The resurrection times vary wildly.  We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes.  The longest we heard of was eight hours, in the case of this patient; it was two hours one minute…seven seconds.”  Suddenly red appeared where it had once been dark, it started to fire off like before only most still remained dark, and the lightening was located in one place.

“It restarts the brain?”   Lori asked.

“No, just the brain stem.  Basically, it gets them up and moving.”

“But they’re not alive?”  Rick asked.

Jenner waved his hand at the screen.  “You tell me.”

“It’s nothing like before.  Most of that brain is dark.”  Rick said.

“Dark, lifeless, dead.  The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part—that doesn’t come back.  The _you_ part.  Just a shell driven by mindless instinct.”  The person started to move, its mouth opening and closing.  There was a blast as a hole entered the brain and exited the other side.

“God.  What was that?”  Carol asked.

“He shot his patient in the head.”  Andrea explained, she looked at him.  “Didn’t you?”  She asked.

“VI, power down the main screen and the workstations.”

 _“Powering down main screen and workstations.”_   VI replied.  The screen and the workstations turned off.

“You have no idea what it is, do you?”  Andrea asked.

He was silent for a few minutes then faced us.  “It started as a virus, in one person who died.  It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal.”

“Or the wrath of God?”  Jacqui said.

“No, it was an accident, it wasn’t our intension.”

“What happened?”  Rick asked.

“Two years ago we started a project, several different C.D.C. locations wanted to make the immune system stronger so we could fight off things like the black plague or diseases such as lumps or leukemia.  Cancer, aids, anything that killed us or made the human body weak.  We tried it on animals first, the results were good.  So two people down in Boston volunteered to test it out, at first it was an injection and it worked, they barely got a cough when we introduced the black plague into their system.”

“What happened, something must’ve happened?”  Lori asked.

“We made it to strong; it went from being an immune booster, to being a mutagen.  The woman she came down with chills and a body ach at the start, then she got boils and pustules, they recorded what happened as she got sicker and sicker, her body slowly ate itself to death, until she was nothing but a pile of blood and skin.”  Carol and Lori put their hands over the kids’ ears as he continued.

“The man who volunteered started hearing voices, dreaming of things to come if he didn’t stop it.  He tried to warn us, but we didn’t believe him, he was seeing the future, having visions that were causing migraines.  He went crazy and then blew up the Boston C.D.C.  Without realizing that the good results prompted them to make the mutagen airborne.  It got out, and within the first week we were get reports of men, women and children doing incredible things, like telekinesis, telepathy, super strength, speed, growing things like one woman grew a third breast.  Then there was the sickness, some go sick and died, the mutagen must’ve made the virus that created the walkers.”  He finished.

It made since now, how I could get pregnant, the dents in the metal, Daryl’s excellent hearing.  “Does everyone get these mutations?”  I asked.

“It’s in you, we’re all infected, the mutagen sometimes stays dormant until a trauma to the body or mind wakes it up and then you get what it deems you need.  That’s what happened and now I’m trying to find a cure for this virus that we helped create.”

“Wait I need proof, I can’t just go at your word, what’s your proof that we have mutations that are changing us?”  Dale asked.

Jenner moved to his shirt and lifted it, there on his side below his right arm was another arm, it was bent at the elbow around his chest where he strapped it, the fingers moved and wiggled.  We all gasped, some coving their mouths in shock, then he let his shirt down.  He looked at me and pulled out the folded up ultra sound, he was waiting for something, permission I guess.  I nodded; I couldn’t hide it in a few months, so they might as well know now.

“This is an ultra sound of a fetus.”  Jenner opened it and circled where the baby was then passed it around.

“There’s nothing unusual about this.”  Lori said as she passed it to me, I didn’t even look at it just gave it to Dale.

“That’s a fetus from a womb that shouldn’t exist.”

“Why’s that?”  Daryl asked as he took it from Carol.

“That womb, the fetus is from one your men.”  Jenner said.  Every one suddenly looked at me, all the symptoms made since now; I’m also the only one he asked to talk to after breakfast.  I just barely glanced at Daryl, who looked at me then the picture, which he had a white knuckled grip on before giving it to T-Dog.  I was terrified how Daryl was going to react, what he would do or say next time we were alone together.

No one spoke for several minutes as Jenner got the ultra sound back, he walked to me and handed it over.  I folded it up and put in my pocket that pretty much said it all.

Carol asked a question, to take the attention away from me.  “There are others, right?  Other facilities?”  We all wanted to know if there were others out there trying to find a cure to this virus or mutagen whatever you wanted to call it.

He looked at her.  “There may be some, people like me.”

“But you don’t know?  How can you not know?”  Rick asked.

“Everything went down, communications, directives—all of it.”  He explained as he faced Rick.   “I’ve been in the dark for almost a month.”

“So it’s not just here, there’s nothing left anywhere?  Nothing?  That’s what you’re really saying, right?  If it was one person that mutated this virus then how’d it get everywhere?”

“I can’t explain that, someone got bit took a flight or boat before they were shut down I don’t know.”  Jenner finally said.

“Jesus.”  Jacqui said several minutes after Jenner’s admission.

“Man, I’m gonna get shitfaced drunk again.”  Daryl said as he rubbed his eyes at all this new information.

“Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…that clock—” Dale said as he pointed to the red numbers.  “It’s counting down.”  It just got to fifty-nine minutes.  He turned and looked at Jenner as he asked his question.   “What happens at zero?”

He looked at Dale then the clock.  “The basement generators—they run out of fuel.”

“And then?”  Rick asked as Jenner didn’t elaborate.  Jenner didn’t answer him just walked away.  “VI, what happens when the power runs out?”  Rick asked the computer.

“ _When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.”_   Rick told everyone to go back to the rooms and relax, he picked me, Shane and T-Dog to go with him and check out the basement.  We opened the door to downstairs and flipped on the lights, as we headed down there I asked.

“Decontamination—what does that mean?”

“I don’t like the way Jenner clammed up.”  Rick said Shane was behind him I was following Shane; T-Dog was behind me.  Rick hadn’t answered my question as he continued to talk.  “The way he just wandered off like that.”

“What’s wrong with him?  Seriously, man, is he nuts medicated, what?”  T-Dog asked as we got down the stairs, Rick and Shane were reading a map of the building that was on the wall.

“In there.”  Rick said.  He opened the door, it was dark; we turned on our flashlights and headed in.  Shane found a light switch and flipped it on.

“Check that way.”  Rick told us as he pointed right, then he headed left.  “Shane.”  He said, Shane followed him.

Lots of machines and pipes that were humming with energy and life is what I saw, not like I really understood what any of it was used for.   We were seeing a lot of generators and empty fuel drums though.  Then the energy and life shut off, T-Dog and I used our flash lights as we turned to get back to Shane and Rick.

VI spoke up a second after the lights went out.  _“Emergency lighting on.”_ T-Dog was following me as I ran back to where the other guys were.

“Hey, you guys kill the lights?”  I asked.

“Nah, it just went out.”  Shane explained.

“Anything?”  Rick asked.

“Yeah, a lot of dead generators, and more empty fuel drums than I can count.”  T-Dog explained.

Shane flashed his light at the only generator still working, and then turned to Rick.  “It can’t be down to just that one.”

“Let’s go ask him.”   Rick said as he herded us back to the stairs, we followed him as he ran upstairs to talk with Jenner.  We got to the big room, under the catwalk that leads to the platform.

“Rick?”  Lori called from above before Jenner led them downstairs to us.

We met them; Jenner had an almost empty bottle of wine in his hands.  “Jenner, what’s happening?”  Rick asked.

“The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power.”  Jenner explained as he walked by Rick, he waved to his wife before turning and staying in pace with Jenner as he headed to the platform of computer.  He continued.  “It’s designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second.  That started as we approached the half-hour mark.  Right on schedule.”  Jenner finished as he pointed to the numbers that were at thirty-one minutes and still counting down.

He took a swig of his wine as he got to the stairs leading up to the platform; he stopped, and looked at Daryl as he held the wine out.   Daryl snatched it out of his hand before Jenner looked at us.

“It was the French.”  Jenner said.

“What?”  Andrea asked.

“They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know.  While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end.  They thought they were close to a solution.” 

Jenner ascended the rest of the stairs to the platform as Jacqui asked.  “What happened?”

“The same thing that’s happening here.  No power grid ran out of juice, the world runs on fossil fuel.   I mean, how stupid is that?”  He walked away.

“Let me tell you—” Shane started as he was walking after Jenner, Rick grabbed him though.

“To hell with it, Shane I don’t even care.”  Rick turned to him before turning to us.  “Lori, grab our things everybody, get your stuff.  We’re getting out of here _NOW!_ ”  Rick screamed the last part to get us moving.  Daryl grabbed me as he pushed me in front of him to get our stuff.

Suddenly an alarm started blaring as red lights flashed, we stopped.  “What’s that?”  Rick asked.

“What’s that?”  Carl asked as he stood next to Shane, who put his hand on his head.  The screen came alive a big red countdown clock appeared.

 _“Thirty minutes to decontamination.”_ VI informed us.

“Doc, what’s going on here?”  Daryl asked.

“Everybody, y’all heard Rick.  Get your stuff and let’s go! Go now! Go!”   Shane shouted over the siren screaming in the room.  A blast door suddenly rose from the ground blocking our exit, Rick ran to it.

“No.  Did you just lock us in?”  I asked, terror in my voice as I looked at him.  “He just locked us in!”  I screamed as I was starting to panic.

He started speaking to something on his computer screen.  “We’ve hit the thirty-minute window I am recording.”  The group was running back to us at the platform.

“Carl.”  Lori called.

“MOM!”  Carl screamed the siren noise had stopped.

Daryl ran onto the platform at the guy.  “You son of a bitch.”

“Shane!”  Rick screamed Shane chased after Daryl to stop him.

“You locked us in here!  You lying—” Daryl screamed as he grabbed at Jenner before Shane pulled him away.

“No, stop.  Don’t!”  Shane told him as he fought with Daryl.  T-Dog and I had run up there to.

“Wait, no!  No, don’t do it.”  T-Dog told him as both he and Shane were restraining Daryl, Daryl stopped fighting them and they let him go, I walked to him he just barely put his hand on my back as Rick walked up to Jenner.

“Hey, Jenner, open that door now.”  He ordered.

“There’s no point.  Everything topside is locked down, the emergency exits are sealed.”  He informed us.  Rick put dents in the metal on the outside he could do that to the glass in here.

“Well, open the damn things.”  Daryl ordered gruffly.

“That’s not something I control, the computers do.  I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn’t open again you heard me say that.”  He said pointing at Rick.  Rick looked around at us, Carol wrapped her arms around Sophia; we were all terrified.

“It’s better this way.”  Jenner said.

“What is?”  Rick asked.  “What happens in twenty-eight minutes?”

Jenner went back to his computer typing without answering Rick’s question.  Shane pulled his chair back and he stood up as Rick shouted his question at him.  “What happens in twenty-eight minutes?!”

“Come on!”  Daryl yelled at him.

“You know what this place is?!”  Jenner screamed, he turned and started explaining.  “We protected the public from very nasty stuff!”  He screamed in Shane’s face.  He backed off and continued.  “WEAPONIZED SMALLPOX!  EBOLA STRAINS THAT COULD WIPE OUT HALF THE COUNTRY!  STUFF YOU DON’T WANT GETTING OUT EVER!”  He calmed down as he looked at us, Rick, Dale, Daryl they were angry and upset, Shane, Lori and Carl were scared, just like Carol and Sophia, Jacqui.  I took out the picture of my ultra sound and looked at the baby as Jenner sat back down in front of his computer.

“In the event of a catastrophic power failure—in a terrorist attack, for example—H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.”  He started explaining.

“H.I.T.s?”  Rick asked as he stood right in front of Jenner.

“VI, define.”  He commanded.

 _“H.I.T.s—high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear.”_ As she explained we got really scared, Carol and Sophia started crying I put my hand on my stomach, ask me why I can’t explain it, knowing that inside me is a part of Daryl and myself being formed, I just felt the need to protect it.  VI continued.

 _“The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between five thousand and six thousand degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and the damage to structures is desired.”_   Rick grabbed Lori and Carl then and hugged them close, I felt a hand at my back I looked and saw Daryl as he took one end of the picture in my hand.

“It sets the air on fire.”  Jenner explained in short.   “No pain, an end to sorrow, grief…regret.  Everything.”  Carol turned Sophia around and hugged her tight.  Most of us were just looking at Jenner with disbelief, or pain, fear, anger in Daryl’s case.

Daryl walked up to the blast doors, I followed, Rick was there as he pounded on it for several minutes before realizing that he wasn’t getting through, not even a dent.  Daryl chucked the wine bottle he’d been drinking, it shattered against the door.

“OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”  Daryl screamed as he followed me down the ramp to the platform where Jenner was sitting.  Shane was running back with an axe in his hands, him and T-Dog and found them on the walls in case of fire or some such thing.

“Out of my way!”  He shouted as he ran to the door then swung the axe against it; it just bounced away from it hardly leaving a scratch.

“Daryl!”  T-Dog called from below, he threw a second axe which Daryl caught then joined Shane in attacking the door.  Most were sitting and either crying or being emotionally numb like in Andrea’s case.  But the kids and their mothers were crying, I was scared as well, but I couldn’t cry, I would give into my emotions after we got out of here.  Shane and Daryl went at the door for several minutes.

“You should’ve left well enough alone.  It would’ve been so much easier.”  Jenner said.

“Easier for who?”  Carol asked.

“All of you, you know what’s out there—a short, brutal life and an agonizing death.”  Rick had come back to the platform.  Jenner turned to Andrea and continued speaking.  “Your—your sister—w-what was her name?”

“Amy.”

“Amy.  You know what this does, you’ve seen it.”  He looked at Rick.  Is that really what you want for your wife and son?” He asked.

He got close to him and emphatically said.  “I don’t want _this._ ”  Shane had given up and come back to the platform he was panting and tired as he leaned on one of the computer banks there.  Rick walked up to him.

“Can’t make a dent.”  Shane said.  Daryl was still going at it.

“Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher.”  Jenner explained.

Daryl ran back down as he heard that. “Well, your head ain’t!”  He screamed as he lifted the axe.

“Whoa! Whoa!”  Rick, Dale and Shane all said grabbing Daryl.

“Daryl! Daryl!”  Rick screamed at him as T-Dog grabbed the axe.  “Just back up!  Back up.”  Rick said pushing him back.

“You _do_ want this.”  Jenner stated, he continued as he looked at Rick.  “Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you love was dead.”

“What?”  Lori asked in shock as Rick looked at her.

“What?  You really said that?”  Shane asked, Rick looked at him.  “After all your big talk?”

“I had to keep hope alive, didn’t I?”  Rick asked as he looked at Lori again.

“There is no hope, there never was.”  Jenner informed him.

“There’s always hope, maybe it won’t be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere—”

“What part of ‘everything is gone’ do you not understand?”  Andrea asked from where she sat on the floor her knees pulled to her chest as she rested her crossed arms on them.

“Listen to your friend she gets it.  This is what takes us down, this is our extinction event.”  Carol started crying harder at that.

“This isn’t right.  You can’t just keep us here.”  Carol cried at him as she held her daughter on her lap.

“One tiny moment—a millisecond no pain.”

“My daughter doesn’t deserve to die like _this._ ”  Carol had Sophia go to Dale as she stood up.

“Wouldn’t it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?”

Shane grabbed his shotgun and cocked it as he started walking back when Rick noticed.  “Shane, NO!”  Rick screamed as he tried to stop him.

“Out of the way, Rick!  Stay out of my way!”  Shane ordered as he aimed his gun in Jenner’s face.  Dale reached for Carl as Lori pushed him that way so they could get out of the way of Shane’s rage.

“Open that door or I’m gonna blow your head off do you HEAR ME?!”  Shane ordered forcefully.  Rick walked up next to him to try and calm him down.

“Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this.  We will never get out of here.”

“Shane, you listen to him.”  Lori said.

“It’s too late.”  Shane told them.

“He dies, we all—” Rick started as Shane screamed in anger and frustration and I’m sure fear.  “—we all die!  Shane!”  He fired his gun at one of the computers, Jenner flinched away.  He continued shooting as we backed off and Jenner covered his ears.

Rick grabbed for the gun using his strength to pry it out of Shane’s hands, except that didn’t happen as Shane fought back with just as much strength.  Rick maneuvered his body to get the upper hand and Shane was forced to let go, then Rick hit him with the gun knocking him to the ground, he stood over him then as they were both panting.  Rick looked at him.

“Are you done now?  Are you done?”  Rick asked calmly.

“Yeah, I guess we all are.”  Shane said from the ground.  Rick lowered the shotgun and walked away where he passed it off to T-Dog.  We were all standing around breathing heavily as the air in here started to get stale with the lack of circulation and fresh air.

Rick turned to Jenner and said as Shane got off the ground.  “I think you’re lying.”

“What?”  Jenner asked as he looked at Rick.

“You’re lying about no hope.  If that were true, you’d have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out, you didn’t.  You chose the hard path.  Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”  Jenner said as he sat back down on his chair.

“It does matter, it always matters.”  Rick said as he moved in front of Jenner and bent down to be eye level with him.  “You stayed when others ran.  Why?”

“Not because I wanted to.  I made a promise…”  Jenner stood back up then.  “To her.”  He pointed at the screen.  “My wife.”

“Test subject nineteen was your wife?”  Lori asked.

“She begged me to keep going as long as I could.”  I glanced over and noticed Daryl was going at the door again with the axe, Jenner continued.  “How could I say no?  She was dying.  It should’ve been me on that table.  I wouldn’t have mattered to anybody; she was a loss to the _world_.  Hell, she ran this place I just worked here.  In our field she was an _Einstein._   Me?  I’m just…Edwin Jenner.  She could’ve done something about this, not me.”

“Your wife didn’t have a choice, you do.  That’s—that’s all we want—a choice, a chance.”

“Let us keep trying as long as we can.”  Lori begged.

“I told you topside’s locked down I can’t open those.”  He walked over to a key pad, which he scanned his card on then tapped in the numbers, hit enter.  The door opened.

“Come on!”  Daryl shouted as he picked up his crossbow.  “Let’s go!”

“Come on, let’s go!”  I screamed as I ran up to where Daryl was.  “Come on!”

“Move it! Move it!”  Shane ordered as Carol with Sophia and Lori with Carl ran up the ramp.

“Come on, let’s go!”  Daryl shouted again.

“We’re gonna get out of her, Sophia.”  Carol said.

“Let’s go!”  I screamed a few minutes when I saw Rick still on the platform with Jenner.  I saw Jenner grab Rick by the neck and whisper something in his ear.  I had my hand on Carl’s shoulder as Lori ran back down the ramp to grab Rick.

“Hey, we’ve got four minutes left!  Come on!”  I shouted trying to get them to hurry up.

T-Dog had his hand around Jacqui.  “Let’s go, let’s go come on Jacqui.”  She pulled out of his hold.

“No, no, I’m staying.  I’m staying, sweetie.”  Jacqui informed T-Dog.

“But that’s insane!”  T-Dog told her as he grabbed her hand.

“No, it’s completely sane.  For the first time in a long time.  I’m not ending up like Jim and Amy.  There’s no time to argue.”  Jacqui told us as Shane and Rick passed guns from the bag on Shane’s shoulder.  “And no point, not if you want to get out.  Just get out, get out!”  She pushed at T-Dog to go and leave her.

Shane walked down and grabbed his arm.  “Dog, come on, man.  Come on! Let’s go! Let’s go!”  Shane turned T-Dog around and pushed him to move.

We headed for the stairs and using our flashlights we picked up our pace.  Daryl kept his hand at my lower back as he kept me moving, I’m not sure why Daryl was suddenly touching me out in the open where others could see but I wasn’t going to question it, just enjoy the attention.

We got to the lobby and T-Dog went straight for the doors trying to get them open. 

“Get them doors open!”  Shane ordered.

“It doesn’t work?!”  I asked T-Dog as he ran over to the key pad Jenner used to close the shutters.

“Wait a minute!  Wait a minute!”  T-Dog said as I tried the doors but they wouldn’t budge.   He punched numbers on the key pad.  “Try it! Try it! Try it now!”  T-Dog said.  Same thing doors wouldn’t open.

Rick and Daryl headed for the glass windows.  “Daryl!”  Rick called.  Daryl threw him one of the axes; Rick caught it as they both started hitting the windows.  “Come on!  Come on!”  Rick screamed.

“Stay close, sweetheart.”  Carol told Sophia.

T-Dog grabbed one of the metal chairs and ran for the windows.  “Daryl, look out!”  He yelled a warning.  Daryl moved as T-Dog started hitting the window with the chair, he was screaming and panting from the exertion.

“Dog, get down, get down!”  Shane ordered as he cocked his shotgun, he got close, aimed and fired at the window, nothing happened.  “Jesus.”  Shane said.

We’d all gotten down; I was getting off the floor next to Sophia as she asked. “The glass won’t break?”

“Rick, I have something that might help.”  Carol said as she reached into her brown pack.

“Carol, I don’t think a nail files gonna do it.”  Was Shane’s smart-mouthed reply.

“Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket.”  Carol said as she pulled out a hand grenade.  Rick took it and went back to the window as we ran to find a place to hide.

“Come on.”  Rick said.

“Look out!”  Shane called.  I fell to the ground by one of the walls and when I felt a body on top of me I lifted my head and saw Daryl, I looked down as his hand that covered my stomach.  I saw Rick hit the window first, it splintered but didn’t break.  He then pulled the pin and let the grenade go.

He started running back as he was saying.  “Oh, sh----it.”  It exploded and sent Rick flying.  The glass had shattered giving us our exit, we started getting off the floor, Daryl helped me up, then we ran outside, in the day light.  Shane shot one of the walkers that were there.

Rick shot one; Shane switched guns and shot another one with a pistol instead.  Daryl had picked up the axe he’d dropped when he protected me from the blast and used it to chop a walkers head off.  We continued to shoot as we made it back to our separate vehicles; I was headed for the R.V. with Rick and his family when Daryl grabbed my arm and pulled me to his truck.

We saw Andrea and Dale getting out of the hole we made.  They were running across the field, when Rick blew on his horn in the R.V.  Lori looked out the R.V and shouted at them.  “Dale, get down!  Down!”

“Everybody down! Down!”  Rick screamed.  I saw Shane get down in his jeep, and T-Dog in his van, as well as Carol and Sophia, Dale and Andrea threw themselves behind one of the military blockades.  Daryl pushed me down on the seat as he covered me with his body again as the building exploded.  Shattered glass and debris flew off in all directions, after the shock wave hit we all started to come up and have a look at what use to be the building of the C.D.C. but was now nothing more than a fiery crater.

Daryl exhaled slowly as he let me up.  Lori opened the R.V. door for Dale and Andrea, we sat there for a few minutes, I was just reflecting on the past week and all those we’d lost in such a short amount of time.  All that we had learned, and experienced, as Daryl started up the truck and followed the rest of the caravan as they turned around and headed away from the fire and smoke and what used to be our friend Jacqui.  Daryl glanced at me before back at the road, he touched my back that was all I needed as I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned on his shoulder as he drove with one hand on the wheel.  I was content to just leave all this behind and start fresh with the knowledge that life was growing within me, it wasn’t going to be easy, but I’d make it work with or without Daryl, I just hoped it was with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s the end of Season One, I’ll be starting Season Two in a couple of weeks, I hope you enjoyed the new stuff and what you’d already seen through a different POV. I will be posting the missing scenes to this episode in a day or two hopefully.


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